Twenty members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara State on Wednesday defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, citing the crisis within the ruling party as reason for their defection.

The lawmakers said their decision to leave the PDP was made without thorough evaluation and extensive consultations with elders and the electorates in their constituencies.

Speaker Rasaq Atunwa, who announced the defection of the members in a letter read during Wednesday’s plenary, said the defection was in consonance with the provision of Section 109 sub- section 1 and G of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

The defectors led by principal officers of the House stood up one after the other to confirm their decision to join APC. Three of the them who were absent during the session were represented by their colleagues.

The two APC members in the House before Wednesday’s mass defection, Hassan Oyeleke and Tope Olayonu expressed happiness over their colleagues’ decision to join their party.

They described the action of their colleagues as unprecedented in the history of the legislative arm of the House.

With the decampment, the Assembly now has 22 APC members out of  24  lawmakers.