Retired Magistrate, Ayah Paul Abine, Dies on Christmas Day

Former Cameroon Supreme Court Magistrate, Justice Ayah Paul Abine, has died after a long battle against ill health.

He died at the Buea Regional Hospital this Wednesday, December 25, 2024. His mortal remains have been preserved at the Fako Funeral Home in Buea.

Grief engulfed his home at Great Soppo in Buea as friends, mentees and family members stopped by to mourn him.

Justice Ayah Paul was a former Advocate General of the Supreme Court and retired politician.

Ayah Paul served as Member of Parliament for Akwaya in Manyu Division of the South West Region, under the banner of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party (CPDM).

He resigned from the CPDM in 2011, a year before his parliamentary term expired.

He founded the Popular Action Party (PAP) and contested against long-serving President Paul Biya in the 2011 elections.

Biya won the elections amid allegations of rigging and vote buying.

Ayah Paul Abine firmly criticises the government and actively upholds human rights and the rule of law.

He strongly opposed the 2008 constitutional amendment that scrapped term limits for the President.

This enabled 91-year-old Paul Biya to continue ruling Cameroon for 42 years now.

His subsequent opposition of the government’s handling of the ongoing Anglophone armed conflict in the English-speaking Regions got him arrested in January 2017.

After spending more than eight months in prison, Ayah Paul regained freedom in August 2017.

Since then, he has continued to criticize the government’s handling of the crisis.

He has also been a proponent of a federal system of government as a solution to the Anglophone Crisis.

Ayah Paul’s resolute criticism of the regime fetched him persecution.

The government froze his bank accounts and blocked his retirement benefits, depriving him of millions of francs CFA.