Tributes have been pouring in from multiple angles in Cameroon and beyond for the loss of Justice Ayah Paul Abine, a man some have described as an ‘iroko tree’.
He breathed his last at the Buea Regional Hospital at the age of 74.
Fabrice Lena, former Secretary General of the PAP party, expressed shock, saying, “Justice Ayah Paul Abine, we didn’t expect it now. Rest in power; you taught us the ways of integrity, nobility, resistance, and resilience.”
Denis Njang, leader of the PAP, also described him as “an iroko tree and a citadel of wisdom who has left an indelible ink that shall never be erased for posterity.”.
From the prison walls in Kondengui, detained Anglophone activist Abdul Karim Ali, immortalised his moments, with the fallen figure saying he will be missed.
“Pa Abine’s legacy will endure, a shining testament to the transformative power of the human spirit,” Abdul Karim said in a tribute seen by MMI.
Born 74 years ago in Akwaya, South West Region, Ayah Paul Abine was an accomplished magistrate, politician, lawyer, and philanthropist.
He attended the prestigious National School of Administration and Magistracy, graduating as a magistrate in 1976.
Upon graduation, he became Vice President of the Appeal Court of the South West Region.
He joined the ruling CPDM party and became Member of Parliament in 2002, representing Akwaya Constituency in Manyu Division of the South West Region.
His militancy in the CPDM turned soar when, in 2008, he opposed a constitutional amendment sponsored by the ruling CPDM party.
The amendment aimed to strip term limits for the post of president.
Other CPDM MPs clapped through the bill, which has enabled President Paul Biya to cling to power for 42 years and counting.
Faced with isolation at the CPDM party, he formally resigned from the party and unsuccessfully contested for president in 2011 under the ticket Popular Action Party (PAP).
In 2015, media reports indicated that Ayah Paul Abine became the Chairman of the separatist group, Southern Cameroon’s National Council (SCNC).
This followed the death of it’s leader, Chief Ayamba Ette Otun.
Abine neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
A few days after his purported election as SCNC Chairman, a decision of the higher judicial council appointed him advocate general of the Supreme Court.
He became the first English-speaking Cameroonian to hold the post.
He took up duty in Yaounde until the Anglophone Crisis started in 2016.
On January 21, 2017, authorities arrested him for advocating a return to a federal system in Cameroon, similar to the one in the 1960s.
He was then preseneted at the Yaoundé military tribunal with other members of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC).
This was after the government banned the organisation and declared it illegal amid unrest in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
On August 30, 2017, Ayah Paul walked out of prison after spending over eight months in Yaounde. Further to his unlawful detention, to date, it is not clear what his crime was.
They subsequently sent him into retirement from the judiciary, froze his accounts, and denied his retirement benefits.
In 2018, he joined the Cameroon Bar Association as a barrister-at-law.
He also founded The Ayah Foundation, providing humanitarian assistance to mostly victims of the armed conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone Regions.
The organisation has also since faced persecution from the regime in power.
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