Kwara Staff Exposing 3M Voter Database Rigging Plot

“They Want Ghost Voters”: Inside the Job of Inflating Kwara’s Resident Register

Kwara registration staff allege mass sackings after refusing demand to collect 3M resident records for APC’s 2027 rigging plot. Shocking exploitation revealed.

Atlantic Post

August 6, 2025

3–4 minutes

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, APC scandal, data fraud, Election rigging, Kwara politics, KWASSRA

A whistle-blower has lifted the veil on a brazen scheme allegedly orchestrated by the Kwara State Resident Registration Agency (KWASSRA) to manipulate the resident database ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Staff have accused the agency’s managing director of setting an “unrealistic” target of three million registrations—nearly the entire population of Kwara State—to engineer phantom entries in favour of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

An Unrealistic Target for Political Gain

Kwara State’s population at mid-2024 is estimated at just over 3.39 million—comprising men, women and children alike.

To demand three million resident registrations effectively aims to capture almost every soul in the state, minors included, for partisan purposes.

Even more telling is that only 1.7 million voters were registered for the 2023 gubernatorial poll—fewer than half the targeted figure—underscoring how the database goal dwarfs legitimate electoral rolls.

“This isn’t data collection; it’s an audition for who can produce the most ghost voters,” one anonymous field officer lamented. “We’re being forced door-to-door, without vehicles, safety or shelter—simply to hit arbitrary quotas that serve the governor’s re-election machine.”

Labour Exploited Under False Pretences

Originally engaged for stationary registration duties—where residents queued at local offices—workers say they were blindsided by a sudden, aggressive “mobile” campaign.

“They sacked me for registering 90 out of 100 people,” recalled another staff member. “Yet they pocketed our pay and offered no transport, no accommodation. Some slept in mosques or church halls, left stranded for weeks”.

Under Nigeria’s labour law, casual workers are entitled to fair remuneration and reasonable conditions.

But these temporary hires—lured by promises of steady work—found themselves trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle: sacked, then “recalled” without pay, their efforts unrecognised if they fell short of the 3 million-residents threshold.

Historical Parallels: A Familiar Playbook

Electoral manipulation through inflated registers is no stranger to Nigerian politics. In the 2019 Bayelsa and Rivers State elections, observers decried “ghost polling units” and suspect voter lists, forcing last-minute court interventions.

Nationally, INEC’s 2023 register showed 93.46 million eligible voters—less than half the 2027 database KWASSRA is chasing—illustrating the gulf between legitimate rolls and this data-driven ambition.

In Kwara itself, Governor Abdulrazaq’s 2023 re-election margin was secured with roughly 273,000 votes—barely 16 per cent of registered voters.

To overlay that outcome with a 3 million-entry database would be equivalent to reticulating an entire state’s demographic map for partisan ends.

Civilians and Civil Society: A Call to Arms

The agency’s complicit leadership is now under scrutiny: civil society organisations, rights groups and the media have been urged to probe the misuse of public data infrastructure and labour rights abuses.

“This is a test of Nigeria’s democratic resilience,” says a local election monitor. “If ghost registrations go unchecked, voters’ confidence will collapse, and the very notion of free and fair elections will be hollowed out.”

KWASSRA’s Silence and the Government’s Inaction

Despite repeated inquiries, neither KWASSRA’s management nor the Kwara State government has responded to allegations.

Their silence has only fuelled suspicion that the scheme was sanctioned from the top.

The absence of logistical support, the exploitation of laid-off staff, and the punitive sackings collectively paint a damning picture of public office weaponised for private political gain.