Section 212: Deposit documents at overseas port

(1)
Whenever a Nigerian ship, (other than a ship whose business for the time being is to carry passengers), whether cabin or deck passengers, arrives at a port in a country outside Nigeria, at which there is an appropriate officer and remains there for forty-eight hours, the master of the ship shall, within forty-eight hours of the arrival of the ship, deliver to the appropriate officer the agreement with the crew, and also all indentures and assignments of cadetships, or such of those documents as the ship is provided with.
(2)
The appropriate officer shall keep the documents during the ship's stay in the port, and, in cases where any endorsements upon the agreement are required by this Act, shall make the endorsement and return the documents to the master within a reasonable time before his departure, with a certificate endorsed on the agreement stating the time when the documents were respectively delivered and returned.
(3)
If it appears that the required forms have been neglected, or that the existing Laws have been transgressed, the appropriate officer shall make an endorsement to that effect on the agreement and immediately transmit to the Minister a copy of the endorsement, with the full information the appropriate officer is able to gather regarding the neglect or transgression.
(4)
The master of a ship who fails, without reasonable cause, to deliver any document in pursuance of this section, commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than one hundred thousand Naira.
(5)
In any prosecution for an offence under this Section, if the master of a ship fails to produce the certificate issued under subsection (2) of this Section, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved that the master failed to deliver the document concerned, in pursuance of this section.