A professor of business education at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Mr Mahmood Aliyu, has declared his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The presidential aspirant made the declaration at a press conference on Saturday in Minna.

Aliyu said his decision to vie for the presidency was informed by the agitation for the emergence of new crop of leaders "to fight the malaise in the country.

"There has been agitation for the emergence of new crop of leaders by well-meaning Nigerians in order to take this country out of problems."

The aspirant said APC was the only party that would tackle the current security challenges bedevilling the country. He added that "an APC government will tackle the security issue with all the seriousness it requires and deserves."

Aliyu, however, called on the national leadership of the APC to review the N27 million fee for picking the party's presidential nomination form.

He said "our party should have a rethink about the fee for presidential nomination forms, so that ordinary Nigerians can afford it.

"Ordinary people who have something to offer get scared away by the amount; even the PDP fee is not up to that of our party."

He described as embarrassing, reports that he was being sponsored by the ruling PDP to run for president, arguing that he had always been in the opposition since he joined politics in 1993.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the presidential aspirant was born on Nov. 20, 1951 in Niger and he is an indigene of Offa in Kwara. (NAN)