The Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurrn, Delta State, has denied report that its students live in “snake infested” hostels and study in leaking classrooms, despite operating a ₦39 billion budget.
The Management in a statement yesterday refuting a publication by an online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, and made available to The Guardian, said its attention was “drawn to a deliberately misleading, provocative and factually inaccurate publication titled: “Despite ₦39 Billion Budget, Students at Nigeria’s Petroleum Training Institute Study in Flooded Classrooms, Snake-Infested Hostels”, published on July 10, 2025, by Sahara Reporters”.
They stated the report is false, mischievous, and appeared to be “the handiwork of unscrupulous elements determined to tarnish the reputation of the Institute and undermine the hard-earned name, peace, progress, and infrastructural strides recorded in recent years under this current leadership”.
The management stressed that there are no flooded Classrooms or snake-Infested Hostels at PTI
adding that the unfounded claim that classrooms are flooded and that students are studying under collapsed roofs is a fabrication lacking any shred of evidence.
“If indeed such conditions exist, SaharaReporters should present verifiable photographic or video evidence of any flooded lecture hall or reptile-infested hostel on campus. No such conditions exist.
“PTI classrooms, workshops, laboratories, and hostels are in good and habitable condition, continuously maintained by the Services Directorate. Lecture halls are roofed, well ventilated, electrically powered and dry, and no official or verifiable complaint has been made by any student to the contrary”, PTI stated.
On the ₦39 billion budget referred to in the report and referenced in the 2025 budget, the management said it is a federal allocation that covers a wide range of the Petroleum Training Institute’s capacity development, capital projects, personnel and overhead costs, as well as technical projects.
They added that budgetary allocations are subject to releases, procurement processes, and oversight functions by the National Assembly and that is malicious and intellectually dishonest to allege mismanagement without basis or context.
They stated that the PTI operates under strict accountability protocols supervised by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Budget Office, and relevant auditing bodies.
