The Ondo State branch of Niger Delta Youth Movement (NDYM) has called on the Federal Government to revisit all projects abandoned by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in the region particularly in Ondo State with a view to completing them.

State NDYM President, Agbejoye Adetoye and the Secretary, Akinjeji Friday, in a release made available to The Guardian yesterday lamented what they called “acute lack of Federal Government presence in the Ondo section of the Delta which comprises the riverrine councils of Ese-Odo and Ilaje.”

The duo said despite the immense economic, political importance and contribution of the area to national growth, the people have nothing to show for it.

The group also denied being responsible for attacking the two ministers in the Niger Delta Ministry, Usani Usani and Professor Claudius Omoyele Daramola, during an official visit to Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje local council last week.

They explained that the youth only protested against the refusal of the ministers to visit the sites of some of the Ministry’s projects in the area, particularly the housing project at kofawe in Igbokoda.

Agbejoye and Akinjeji accused the contractors handling some of the projects of doing shoddy jobs and that in an attempt to cover it up, manipulated and diverted the ministers to Aboto to inspect projects of the Ondo State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) instead.

They said this infuriated the youths who in turn compelled some members of the entourage to inspect the kofawe project to ascertain the group’s claim

The NDYM further accused the contractors of being the cause of the protest adding that their efforts to dissuade and manipulate the ministers’ itinerary sparked off the protest.

They lamented that many of the ministry’s project awarded by previous administrations to transform the area had been abandoned after which the contractors handling such projects had collected over seventy percent of the project’s fund.

“We want to sincerely apologize to the ministers if our actions have wronged them. We were only protesting against the shoddy job done by the contractors and their effort to cover it up. The ministers did not know this. We are peace-loving people. We are calling on the ministers to review cases of abandoned projects and other projects embarked upon by the Niger Delta Ministry in our area,” the group said.