Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has said the N50 billion fine paid by one of the telecommunication company operating in the country, MTN, was not a concessionaire fee, but part of the actual fine it supposed to pay to the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC.

He made the disclosure yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital while speaking as the Guest of Honour at the roundtable programme organised by the League of Veteran Journalists, Oyo State chapter.

He said the company had earlier admitted that it failed to register no fewer than 5.2 million lines out of the 22 million lines on its network, apologised and confessed to the offence and asked for sum review of the fine. He said the money paid to the NCC was not the actual fine it supposed to pay, stating that the actual money would be paid after the House of Representatives concluded its investigation on the matter.

While maintaining that the Federal Government will continue to sanction any company that failed to register its subscribers, Shittu said the failure of those companies to fully register their subscribers has made several criminal activities such as kidnapping of the former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae and other prominent Nigerians easy because the lines used to communicate the families were not traceable to any individual.

He said it has caused the country a lot of damage which is even more than the actual fine. Shittu, who urged Nigerians to be patient with the present government as it rolls out policies to move the country forward and made life comfortable for the people, said things, would be better in no distance time.

The minister, who also assured that the Federal Government would train graduates of Computer Science so as to make them employable, noted that going by the rates of unemployment among the graduates, government would train them in the practical form of their course of study.