Presidential aspirant, Marie Sock's Nigerian boyfriend has threatened to drag What's On-Gambia to court for defamation of character in response to a Facebook post that truly revealed his girlfriend holds no university degree contrary to the fake MBA she advertised on her Facebook page.
In an e-mail to this outlet, JJ wrote: "Defamation of character must stop. Get your information correct, you don't have to be paid to condemn people online. I demanded an audience with you, I called all radio and TV and newspapers to come for the aspirant announcement, they all have the correct information. They never ever said Marie claimed... She never ever claimed to have a degree. Why are you quoting her?"
He continued: "You and Standard Newspaper will hear from me soon. I will get to the button of this!"
What's On-Gambia defended its reporting and told Marie's boyfriend, who is young enough to be her son: "If you need our address for your lawyers, please let us know. We will definitely welcome the opportunity to meet you in court."
He responded: "Don't worry we are on it. I have been requesting that you guys interview Marie to avoid all these crap but declined."
Marie Sock in an interview with Voice Out Digital maintained that she did indeed have an MBA as rightly claimed on her Facebook but only finished the first stage and is waiting for the second and final certificate to have a full MBA.
Editor's take
Gambians are not stupid and the days of faking degrees and maintaining plausible deniability won’t be accepted. We all know you have to meet all the requirements of an MBA program to be conferred a degree and you cannot have an MBA Degree without first obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree.
The Associate Degree granting community college Marie Sock claimed to have attended said she registered for a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class to become a nursing home worker but neither graduated nor did she ever got a certification from the school in 2003. She registered at the school using the July 3rd,1967 date of birth.