Justina Eze, a former Nigerian ambassador to Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, has sued First Bank over the alleged missing of her safe deposit box containing jewellery from the bank’s vault.
Eze also represented Uzo Uwani, Enugu at the house of representatives during the second republic.
In her suit marked E/431/2021 filed before a high court in Enugu state, Eze said in 1999, former President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed her as ambassador to Cape Verde.
The ex-diplomat said on the eve of her departure to the country, she packed the jewellery in the box and asked Chinwe Eze-Boulhassane, one of her daughters, to keep it at a branch of First Bank in Enugu.
Eze said at the time, the bank acknowledged the receipt of the box and vetted it before keeping it in its vault.
The former lawmaker said when her husband died in 2006, her daughters asked her to get the box so they could wear part of the jewellery to their father’s funeral.
Eze alleged that the branch could not account for the jewellery when she approached the back, which according to her, is currently worth N448,037,760.
In the suit, Olusola Oke, counsel to the ex-diplomat, said his client’s subsequent efforts to ensure the bank produce the box proved abortive.
The plaintiffs (mother and daughter) are praying the court to order the defendant (First Bank) to either return the box containing the pieces of jewellery or pay the monetary value worth N448,037,760.
They are also asking the court to award N50 million in their favour as damages “for psychological trauma, loss of esteem and loss of use the plaintiffs suffered as a result of the defendant’s failure to return to the plaintiffs for their use, their jewelleries deposited with the defendant despite repeated demands”.
They are also seeking another N50 million as the cost of legal fees.
Chinyere Ajogwu is the judge presiding over the suit.