Section 32: Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"accredited agent" means the Director-General or any employee of the Commission authorised in writing by the Commission or any person or body in any State authorised in writing by the Minister to act for the Commission in the State concerned;
"antiquity" means-
(a) any object of archaeological interest or land in which any such object was discovered or is believed to exist; or
(b) any relic of early human settlement or colonisation; or
(c) any work of art or craft work, including any statue, model, clay figure, figure cast or rust metal, carving, house post, door, ancestral figure, religious mask, staff, drum, bolt, ornament, utensil, weapon, armour, regalia, manuscript of document if such work of art or craft work is of indigenous origin and-
(i) was made or fashioned before the year 1918; or
(ii) is of historical, artistic or scientific interest and is or has been used at any time in the performance and for the purposes of any traditional ceremony,
and in the case of any object or relic mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of this section includes for the purposes of this Act any land adjacent thereto which in the opinion of the Commission, a State Government or, as the case may require, the President, is reasonably required for the purpose of maintaining the same or the amenities thereof or for providing or facilitating access thereto, or for the exercise of proper control or management with respect thereto;
"approved museum" means a museum approved by the Commission under section 3 of this Act;
''the Commission" means the National Commission for Museums and Monuments established under section 1 of this Act;
"local government" means any local government council established by law in any State of the Federation;
"maintenance", in relation to an antiquity, includes the fencing, repairing and covering of any antiquity and the doing of any other act or thing which may be required for the purpose of repairing the antiquity or protecting it from decay or injury, and "maintain" shall be construed accordingly;
"the Minister" means the Minister charged with responsibility for antiquities, museums and national monuments;
"mining title" means any licence, right or lease granted under the provisions of the Minerals and Mining Act, and the Petroleum Act or under the provisions of any other enactment regulating or authorising the mining of solid or other minerals;
[Cap. MI2.]
"monument" or "national monument" means any antiquity declared to be such under section 13 of this Act;
"object" of "archaeological interest" means
(a) any fossil remains of man or of animals found in association with man; or
(b) any side trace or ruin of an ancient habitation, working place, midden or sacred place; or
(c) any case or other natural shelter or engraving, drawing, painting, or inscription on rock or elsewhere; or
(d) any stone object or implement believed to have been used or produced by early man: or
(e) any ancient structure, erection, memorial, causeway, bridge, cairn, tumulus, grave, shrine, excavation, well, water tank, artificial hole, monolith, grove of stores, earthwork, wall, gateway or fortification; or
(f) any antique tool or object of metal, wood, stone, clay, leather, textile, basket wear or other material,
which is (or are) of archaeological interest;
"owner" includes a joint owner invested with powers of management in respect of an antiquity on behalf of himself and other joint owners and any agent or trustee exercising such powers and the attorney of any such person.