Until recently a discreet magistrate, Dieudonné Aba'a Owono became one of the new regime's key figures when he was named head of the Constitutional Court on 7 September 2023. A graduate of Gabon's École Nationale de la Magistrature in the late 1980s, he first rose to the presidency of a chamber of the Council of State in the early 2020s, but did not have extensive networks within the judiciary.
Aba'a Owono owes his growing influence to the importance attached by many in Libreville to his family ties
