Chief Justice Ayah Paul Abine, Advocate General at the Supreme Court and National President of People Action Party, PAP has told President at Mfoundi High Court that he was illegally arrested and detained in violation of the law of Cameroon.
He made the statements Thursday March 16, 2017 in Yaoundé in front of Joseph Marie Nkeh President at the Mfoundi High Court while in a closed door court session in what was his first appearance before a Judge since his arrest last January.
Ayah Paul Abine began with the first illegality by quoting Section 119 (4) of the Penal Code which forbids the arrest of persons on the weekend. AYAH, it should be noted, was bundled out of his Tam-Tam residence by heavily armed men on Saturday January 21, 2017.
Secondly, the Lord Justice cited Section 629 of the Criminal Procedure Code that clearly spells out the judicial procedures for a judge of his caliber to be arrested; prominent amongst which is the fact that three judges equal to or superior in rank to Justice AYAH were competent enough to form a panel to ONLY interrogate and not effect an arrest.
More so, for such a panel to be constituted, the order had to come through the Head of his department, in this case, the Attorney General of the Supreme Court. All of these procedures were flouted.
The President of the PAP appeared in close session earlier at 11:00 AM before the Mfoundi High Court in the absence of the Commissioner who had to represent the state of Cameroon.
Regular Judicial proceedings warrant that AYAH’s lawyers should have been served with all documents pertaining to the case but that was not the case. It was at the court that the lawyers were told that Ayah Paul Abine was arrested and charged with terrorism, propagation of false information, rebellion to the embarrassment of his Lawyers who said they are only getting the charges at the moment.
Reports have it that Chief Justice AYAH’s judicial ‘homily’ got the President of the Mfoundi High Court nodding in the affirmative all through.
It is also alleged that Justice Ayah Paul used the occasion to tell those present that he had strong feelings that Laurent Esso (Minister of Justice), Rene Emmanuel SADI (Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization), Jacque Fame NDONGO (Minister of Higher Education), Issa TCHIROMA BAKARY (Minister of Communication) in complicity with top notch Anglophones were behind the embarrassment of the state and massive arrests ongoing in the English speaking regions of the country.
Barrister Ndong Christopher has hinted that an appeal against the charges will be dropped in the office of the President of Mfoundi High Court following the irregularities in his arrest, they want his freedom soonest.
However the case has been adjourned to March 21, 2017.
By Wilson MUSA, Cameroon-Info.Net
