Section 134: Bankrupt failing to keep proper account.

(1) Any person who has been adjudged bankrupt or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made shall be guilty of an offence under this Act if, having been engaged in any trade or business during any period in the two years immediately preceding the date of the presentation of the bankruptcy petition, he has not kept proper books of account throughout that period and throughout any further period in which he was so engaged between the date of the presentation of the petition and the date of the receiving order, or has not preserved all books of account so kept and shall on conviction be liable to fine of N200 or imprisonment for one year or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) A person who has not kept or has not preserved such books of account shall not be convicted of an offence under this section-
(a) if his unsecured liabilities at the date of the receiving order did not exceed, in the case of a person who has not on any previous occasion in Nigeria or elsewhere been adjudged bankrupt or made a composition or arrangement with his creditors, N5,000, or in any other case N1,000; or
(b) if he proves that in the circumstances in which he traded or carried on business the omission was honest and excusable.
(3) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any person under this section except by order of the court.
(4) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed not to have kept proper books of account if he has not kept such books or accounts as are necessary to exhibit or explain his transactions and financial position in his trade or business, including a book or books containing entries from day to day in sufficient detail of all cash received and cash paid, and where the trade or business has involved dealings in goods, statements of annual stock-takings, and (except in the case goods sold by way of retail trade to the actual consumer) accounts of all goods sold and purchased showing the buyers and sellers thereof in sufficient detail to enable the goods and the buyers and sellers thereof to be identified.