Abine Ayah Ayah, president of the Ayah Foundation has been detained after he willingly showed up for questioning today February 20, 2020 at SED in Yaoundé.
His summon to SED are under very unclear circumstances as he has been vocal against government actions in handling the Anglophone crisis while being very instrumental in philanthropic help to resettle displaced persons of the crisis.
Early this year, Ayah announced government plans to ‘neutralize’ him. The humanitarian said his life was in danger as there were possible plans to “eliminate” him.
“I have been reliably informed that all is set for me to be neutralized in the coming hours or days by the Government of the Republic of Cameroon.
The last alert came to me this morning as we were preparing a humanitarian outreach to the NDIAN, a trip we have just suspended till further notice” he wrote to us on January 4, 2020.
On June 7, 2017, at about midday, Ayah was first dragged alongside his cousin, to a Commissioner of Government who accused them on spying on the nation and sending information to Ambazonian terrorists.
He was at the military court that day to assist in the court case of the consortium members who were in detention, especially his dad who was kidnapped by forces of law and order.
Without any evidence, the Commissioner of Government immediately ordered the seizure of their phones, called the gendarmes at SED to arrest and detain them till further notice, with no chance to explain themselves.
“We were then placed at a tight corner as the court authorities waited for the court session to finish and for every individual to leave the court premises, before the gendarmes very brutally handcuffed us and drove us to SED” Ayah said about the experience.
“It appeared some people wanted a smooth job to be carried out. We were immediately asked to empty our pockets of all it’s belongings, especially money, and contrary to the law, I was prevented from calling anyone, not even a family member or lawyer – while I was detained for what I was yet to understand” He added
This comes after there has been unofficial accusations that the Ayah Foundation is distributing arms to fighters in the anglophone regions of Cameroon – an accusation which caused the Foundation to file a court complain against its accusers.
Activists estimate that at least 1,000 people are in detention in prisons across Cameroon.
The arrest of anglophone opinion leaders, activists and politicians have been part of the Cameroonian government’s attempt to quash pressure from within and keep the population silent on government acts.
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