ObenMarxwell:

AYAH pledges free legal aid to detained SCNC activist

-Questions Oben’s detention in perpetuity and why his case cannot be heard

Justice Ayah Paul Abine

Advocate-General of the Supreme Court of Cameroon, Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine has on 9 September 2016 visited the detained SCNC activist Oben Maxwell at the Buea Central Prison. Justice Ayah Paul who is also the National President of the Peoples Action Party, PAP, made the visit under the canopy of his Human Rights Organization, JUSTICE4ALL.

                The visit came not before some lawyers from JUSTICE4ALL had also offered to provide free legal services to Oben with the aim to seek legal redress for the activist, who has been in prison custody since 2 February 2014 that is, upwards of 30 months; whereas, by Cameroonian law, such custody should not exceed six months…

                Low-spirited and with failing sight, Oben was utterly depressed that schools have reopened but his children are all out of school. He sobbed that one of his daughters is marrying without his even knowing the date of the ceremony. And all these odds against him without his knowing what his crime is, or why, if any crime he has committed, the case against him cannot be heard.

                Oben told the JUSTICE4ALL team that when his case last came up on August 30, the court did not as much as sign any warrant to bring up prisoners. That means that he does not know when next he would be brought to court. His fear is that he may join the many others who have been in custody in perpetuity because their cases have lapsed from the current case lists.

               

Maxwell Oben

Justice Ayah and his team gave Oben assurance that they would contact his counsel to pursue the matter. The question remains though: why is Oben Maxwell in custody in perpetuity? And that begs the further question as to why any case against him cannot be heard and determined within the law.

                “Some learned person somewhere may wish to edify us on why we should not view this as organized persecution?”

                It should be noted that Oben was arrested in Mutengene in the SW region, in a bus that was heading to Yaounde, where he and his family were resident. His arrest came just days to Biya’s visit to Buea to preside over activities commemorating the reunification of Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun.

                He was charged with subversion, holding illegal public meetings and unlawful possession of materials with intention to incite civil war.

                Leader of the Cameroon Youth League, Oben is a frontline and an unrepentant advocate for the dissolution of the union between the two Cameroons. He is also a hardline sympathizer of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC that for decades running has been advocating and clamoring for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons.

*News courtesy Justice4all Secretariat