Following one week of attack on the academic credential of Cllr. Author T. Johnson, the lawyer has blamed some members of the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) and some lawyers in position of the legal profession in Liberia.
Recently, Martin Kollie and his colleagues on Facebook accused Cllr. Johnson of being in possession of bogus Ph.D. credential from Atlantic International University. Following their accusation against Cllr. Johnson, the Hot Pepper conducted an interview regarding the allegation.
During the interview, held over the weekend, Cllr. Johnson noted that the information coming from Martin Kollie and his colleagues is predicated upon the fact that he represented Senator- elect Jeremiah Koung’s case at the National Election Commission (NEC) against Edith Gongloe-Weh of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) which, according to him, came out victorious.
Cllr. Johnson said he is not the only person in Liberia to have received academic credential from Atlantic International University. When asked about why he chose to serve as the lawyer of Senator-elect Koung, he answered as saying that he did not do so because of political reason, but for friendship between he and Senator-elect Koung. According to him, he is not member of any political party in Liberia. Cllr. Johnson indicated that he is more interested in his legal profession than political party work. He continued, “It is not strange, such attack against me, because opposition CPP actually wanted the Nimba County Senatorial seat.”
Cllr. Johnson said he is worried about the next generation of Liberians because, according to him, every segment of Liberia is becoming very political. Still on the Atlantic International University (AIU) creditability, he displayed copies of his transcript, which is also in the possession of the Hot Pepper, AIU certificate of accreditation from the International Schools for Colleges and Universities (ASIC), and other documents. He said he entered AIU in 2014 and graduated with a GPA of 3.94.