The Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) has lauded the online real-time Electronic Voting (e-voting) system manufactured locally by engineers at Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), describing it as a satellite breakthrough for Nigeria.

This commendation was sequel to the successfully conduct of annual general elections by the society in Ilorin, which was monitored, by participants and voters, online either on their laptops or smartphones that are internet enabled.

In his remarks, the NSE President, Engr. Mustapha Balarabe, said the engineers have done it again adding that "this innovation from our engineers at NIGCOMSAT is commendable. It is novel and we are the pioneers, and this has proved that so many good things could come out of Nigeria and we engineers are pioneers in this regard of e-voting."

He urged the Nigerian government to key into the breakthrough during the future general elections, saying it would save the country from incessant huge capital flights spent on post-election rancour and litigations.

Chairman of the NSE Elections Committee, Engr. Charles Mbanefo, said he was very happy with the outcome of the election.

He said, "that it was online real-time made the committee's job light because those who won and those who lost saw the transparency of the process. It was free and fair, even people who were not at the venue monitored the election because it was web-based and results were updated real-time on the dedicated website for the election."

In a statement by the Head, Corporate Communication, NIGCOMSAT, Sonny Aragba-Akpore, the President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr. Chris Uwaje, said the e-voting was an exemplary format.

He said, "It shows that indigenous technology is capable of meeting global competition. Now that NIGCOMSAT Limited has demonstrated this in very exemplary format, government should constitute a national e-voting committee. NIGCOMSAT should be commended."

The National Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Shuaibu Usman, also commended NIGCOMSAT breakthrough in NSE e-voting saying, "my view is that we should continue to look inward. Satellite business is a very sensitive issue and Nigeria cannot continue to rely on foreign satellites."