By Tata Mbunwe
The late Chief Lord Justice of the Supreme Court, Ayah Paul Abine, will receive judicial honours on February 14, the family has told MMI.
The honours will take place at the South West Court of Appeal in Buea, where the retired magistrate and politician breathed his last on December 25, 2024.
Judicial honours is a sacred ritual lawyers perform on a colleague upon death to pay their last respects.
As part of the honours, the Cameroon Bar Association will take complete charge of Justice Ayah’s corpse from the removal from the Fako Funeral Home in Buea.
According to a funeral program the family released recently, the judicial honours will be followed by a mass at St Anthony’s Parish, Lower Farms Buea, at 2 pm on the same day.
His burial date and venue are however absent from the funeral program.
One of his sons made us understand that Ayah Paul Abine was a Chief in his native village of Akwaya and this means traditional rituals will also be conducted before his burial.
MMI learned that the Magistracy of Cameroon will not be giving the late Justice any honours.
This will be shocking, given that it has been a longstanding tradition of the Cameroon Magistracy to honour colleagues who have died.
Justice Ayah’s son told MMI this does not surprise the family because the Magistracy of Cameroon has not shown any sympathies since he died.
Their silence is possibly owing to the ostracisation of the late Justice Ayah Paul by President Paul Biya’s government for his critical views about governance in Cameroon.
A former member of the ruling CPDM party, Justice Ayah Paul resigned from the group in 2011 and created his own party which he used to contest the 2011 Presidential elections against President Biya.
He lost the elections and became a direct target of the government after he criticized the government’s response to the ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking Regions of the country.
This earned him several months of imprisonment as the government quickly linked him to Ambazonia separatists.
After regaining freedom, Justice Ayah’s retirement benefits were suspended and his bank accounts blocked until his death.
Many continue to hold him in high esteem for his commitment to justice and defence for victims of human rights abuses.
