Section 178: Inspection of provisions and water

(1)
An inspecting officer may inspect, before shipment or on board the ship, any provisions, other than provisions made by the crew themselves or water intended for the use of the crew of any Nigerian ship which is going from any port in Nigeria and for which an agreement with the crew is required under this Act.
(2)
If an inspecting officer finds that the provisions or water are in any respect deficient in quality, the ship shall be detained by the inspecting officer until the defects are remedied to his satisfaction.
(3)
An inspection of provisions or water under this section shall, whenever practicable, be made before shipment.
(4)
The owner, agent or master of a ship may give notice to an inspecting officer that any provisions or water for the ship are ready for inspection and the inspecting officer shall inspect the provisions or water under this subsection, if the provisions or water are at a convenient place for inspection, within forty-eight hours after the
notice is given.
(5)
The inspecting officer may inspect any provisions or water not specified in the notice given under subsection (3) of this section without necessarily delaying the ship and may proceed on board a ship in order to satisfy himself that there has been no evasion of the requirements of this section by the substitution of other provisions or water for those which have been inspected on shore or specified in a notice as being the provisions or water for the ship, or otherwise.
(6)
Where an inspecting officer finds the provisions or water deficient in quality, the master of the ship shall be deemed to have committed an offence under this section and on conviction be liable to a fine not less than fifty thousand Naira, unless-
(a)
the court before which the case is tried thinks that the finding of the inspecting officer was not justified; or
(b)
the master of the ship shows to the satisfaction of the court that the responsibility for the defects in the provisions or water rests on the owner of the ship or any agent of the owner of the ship or with the person who supplied the provisions or water in which case the owner, agent or person other than the master, shall be deemed to have committed the offence and liable to payment of the fine.
(7)
The master of the ship and any other person who has charge of any provisions or water liable to inspection under this section shall give the inspecting officer every reasonable facility for the purpose of the inspection under this section and any master or person who refuses to provide the necessary facility commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than twenty thousand Naira.
(8)
Where provisions are inspected under this section before shipment or on board a ship, the owner, agent or master of the ship shall in respect of such inspection, pay such fees as may be prescribed but where the provisions which have been inspected and sealed by an inspecting officer are found on board any ship within such time as may be prescribed as the time for which the seals are to hold good, no fee shall be charged for the verification of the seals.
(9)
The Minister may appoint officers for the purposes of any inspection under this section, and the expression "inspecting officer" wherever used in this section, means an officer appointed to inspect provisions or water under this section.