Twenty members of the Kwara State House of Assembly have officially defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), bringing their total strength to 22 out of the 24 members of the House.
The official decamping, which took place at the floor of the House on Wednesday, was described by the Speaker, Rasak Atunwa, as historic, victory for democracy. He stressed the need for political leaders to always allow for internal democracy and rule of law. He also forecloses the return to PDP in future.
Although the official decamping of the majority members of the State House of Assembly had been expected since the decamping of the state governor, Abdulfattah Ahmed, few weeks ago, it took many by surprise when the speaker, Rasak Atunwa, on resumption from the New Year break announced the defection of 20 members.
He said that they had officially written to denounce their membership of PDP thereby moving to APC.
Each member of the House that defected cited the crisis and factionalisation in PDP as factors responsible for their defection.