Gendarmes summon sick Ayah Paul.

The retired senior magistrate turned lawyer who is said to be in bad shape was reportedly summoned yesterday.

His son, Ayah Ayah Abine confirmed the information yesterday but said the reason behind the summons was sketchy.

In an outing on the official Facebook page of the Ayah Humanitarian, a charity group of the Ayah family, Ayah Ayah Abine wrote: “My Dad, Chief Lord Justice, Barrister Ayah Paul Abine, has once again been summoned, moments ago, to appear at the Gendarmerie Headquarters of the South West Region, Buea, tomorrow Friday 13, 2023”.

He added: “The summons carries no motive nor does it bear the names of the complainant. Daddy received the 'convocation' on his sick seat moments ago”.

Though it is not immediately known why the erudite judge is being summoned for questioning, some sources have been suggesting that it could be linked to his recent outings on social media.

In a Facebook post Monday January 10 which went viral, Justice Ayah Paul made a sarcastic comment on the country’s unity.

“Pa ayah has ever cautioned about the danger of a second ‘Fouman’ from long-neck Foumban girls to...,” he wrote of the Foumban Conference which gave birth to the union between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun.

It is however not the first time Ayah Paul is being summoned for questioning.

In 2017, the former member of the National Assembly who resigned from the CPDM to join the opposition was arrested in Yaounde in the evening of Saturday, January 21.

He was arrested alongside several others in connection with the Anglophone crisis which began a year earlier.

Justice Ayah Paul who has been a vocal critic of the New Deal regime was reportedly whisked off from his residence at the Tam-Tam Weekend neighbourhood to detention at the Gendarmerie Headquarters.

It wasn’t disclosed then why the former CPDM Member of Parliament for Akwaya Constituency was arrested.

However, sources close to the authorities revealed that his arrest was not unconnected to government’s crackdown on Anglophone activists in the country at the time.

Ayah’s arrest came few days after Government had banned the Southern Cameroon National Council, SCNC, considered a secessionist movement.

Few years before the ban, Ayah was reportedly voted the SCNC National Chair in absentia in Kumba, Meme division of the South West region.

Ayah began having an arm’s length relationship with the regime when he resigned as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

He later resigned from the CPDM and created his own party known as the People’s Action Party, PAP.

He was one of those who challenged incumbent President Paul Biya in the 2011 Presidential election.

Even though the super scale Magistrate was appointed the Advocate General of the Supreme Court, he did not tone down his avalanche of criticisms on the regime.

Following his arrest in 2017, Ayah Paul was together with other Anglophone activists later released from jail via a presidential pardon.

He has since taken permanent abode in Buea. Ayah Paul has maintained low profile and has hardly been seen in public.

However, some few days ago, the former lawmaker took to his official Facebook to announce he had successfully recovered from a surgery.

During the outing on January 8, the octogenarian wrote “…some small miracle. I am back from the Glittering Gate where Peter holds the Golden Key.

He said “After protracted arguments for and protracted arguments against, I was told to return to earth just again I knew not the preliminary objection to my trial”.