The Federal Government on Thursday said nine power plants were currently shut down, as this was why power outages had persisted recently across the country.

Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, said this in series of tweets via his official Twitter handle, while his ministry also disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja by his media aide, Aaron Artimas.

The ministry said the power outages had been bedeviling Nigeria, as it explained reasons for the problem.

The statement read in part, “The Ministry of Power is not unaware of the current power outages and shortages bedeviling many parts of the country.

“The problem is caused by the breakdown of some National Integrated Power Plants supplying electricity to the national grid.”

In his tweets, Mamman named the plants to include Sapele, Afam, Olonrunsogo, Omotosho, Ibom, Egbin, Alaoji and Ihovbor.

He said the Jebba Power Plant was shut down for annual maintenance.

“Seven other integrated power plants, namely, Geregu, Sepele, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras and Alaoji are experiencing gas constraints, while the Shiroro plant has water management problems,” the minister stated.

The ministry stated that the unfortunate development had drastically affected power generation, thus effectively minimising the national grid.

Mamman expressed regret over the situation and offered apology to all affected Nigerians on the inconveniences the power shortages were causing.

He assured power users that the ministry through the appropriate agencies was working assiduously to rectify the technical problems affecting the plants as well as resolving the gas issues to the others.