A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sacked 20 members of the Cross River State House of Assembly who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ben Ayade, the state governor had in 2021 left the PDP and joined the APC.

The lawmakers in June 2021 joined Ayade to move over to the APC.

The court in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, on Monday, held that the legislators could not transfer the mandate they received from the ballot to another political party after abandoning the political party that had sponsored them.

The judgement followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/975/2021, which was filed by the PDP.