Section 20: False statements, forging, etc., certificates, and power of police to seize documents.

(1) If any person for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of insurance or a certificate of security under the provisions of this Act makes any statement either oral or written which is false or misleading or withholds any material information such person shall, unless he proves to the satisfaction of the court that he acted without any intent to deceive, be guilty of an offence against this Act and be liable, on conviction, to a fine of four hundred naira or to imprisonment for two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) Any person who with intent to deceive-
(a) forges, alters, defaces or mutilates any certificate of insurance or certificate of security or any other certificate or document issued under this Act; or
(b) uses or allows to be used by any other person any forged, altered, defaced or mutilated certificate of insurance or certificate of security or any other certificate or document issued under this Act; or
(c) lends to or borrows from any other person a certificate of insurance or a certificate of security or any other certificate or document issued under the provisions of this Act; or
(d) makes or has in his possession any document so closely resembling any certificate or document issued under the provisions of this Act as to be calculated to deceive; or
(e) issues any certificate of insurance or certificate of security or other certificate or document to be issued under the provisions of this Act,
shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to a fine of two hundred naira or to imprisonment for two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(3) If any police officer has reasonable cause to believe that any certificate of insurance or certificate of security or any other certificate of or document produced to him in pursuance of the provisions of this Act by the driver or owner of a motor vehicle is a document in relation to which an offence under this section has been committed, he may seize the document and when any such document is so seized the driver and the owner of such motor vehicle or either of them shall, if neither of them has been charged with an offence under the provisions of this section, be summoned before a magistrate to account for the possession of or the presence on the motor vehicle of the said document, and the magistrate may make such order respecting the disposal of the document and award such costs as he may deem just.