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.

With the development, the PDP is left with only two members in the House, as two out of the remaining four members were elected under the APC platform.

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.

They also relied on section 109 of the constitution which they noted empowered them to change party in such situation.

“We have consulted widely in our various constituencies and we have no option than to dump umbrella for broom,” one of the defected members of the House said.

The speaker told reporters that complete collapse of internal democracy and failed efforts to settle the grievances of some members of the PDP was part of the reasons for dumping the party for APC.

Asked if there was a possible return of the defected members to PDP with a new party chairman appointed, the speaker foreclosed their return, saying that it was too late.

“The party has been damaged beyond redemption,” he said.