Section 318: Precautions regarding grain cargoes

(1)
Where grain is loaded on board any Nigerian ship, or is loaded at any port in Nigeria on any ship, all necessary and reasonable precautions shall be taken to prevent the grain from shifting; and, if such precautions are not taken, the owner or the master or any agent of the owner who was charged with the loading or with sending the ship to sea laden with the grain, is guilty of an offence and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be unsafe by reason of improper loading.
(2)
Where a ship, loaded with grain outside Nigeria without necessary and reasonable precautions having been taken to prevent the grain from shifting, enters any port in Nigeria so laden, the owner or master commit an offence and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be unsafe by reason of improper loading.
(3)
No offence is committed under subsection (2) of this section where the ship would not have entered any such port but for stress of weather or any other cause or force majeure, and the master, the owner the charterer if any, could not have prevented or forestalled it.
(4)
Any person authorised by the Agency to ensure the observance of the provisions of this section may inspect the grain, and the mode in which it is stowed and shall have all the powers of a surveyor of ships under this Act.