Tokunbo hopes to have Bermudian lawyers in the top two jobs in his team.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette last Friday, the Island's chief prosecutor outlined his vision for the department and said the way forward had to be putting local attorneys at the helm.

Mr. Tokunbo took over responsibility for criminal prosecutions in the newly-created post of DPP in March, after the Progressive Labour Party decided to reduce the responsibilities of Attorney General Dame Lois Brown Evans.

He said his main objective was encouraging junior Bermudian lawyers to make it to the top, as well as getting everyone in his department to work together as a team.

And he said to help them achieve their goals, both lawyers and administration staff were being offered additional training and workshops.

"One of my aims is to ensure the growth and development of staff,'' he said.

"The two posts that are now vacant, Principal and Senior Crown, will eventually be addressed and the people who fill those posts will be people who have lots of experience.

"But the long-term plan is to ensure that junior Crowns are not confined to Magistrates' Court and have opportunities to grow.

"The long-term plan is to try and groom and prepare Bermudians to occupy the senior roles. Now I'm looking overseas for people to take those two senior roles that are vacant.

"But I suspect the likes of Larry Mussenden, Charmaine Smith and Juan Wolffe will succeed to those positions in four years. They should be really experienced and good at it.'' But he said until they were ready to take the top spots, he would rely on people from overseas to "lend their experience'' and act as a stop gap.

And he also said he appreciated his staffing objective would not always be sustainable as experienced prosecutors were often enticed across to private practice as defence and civil lawyers, where they could become partners and have the potential to earn more money.

In cases like that, he recognised he might have to, again, look to lawyers from overseas to fill the holes.

"There are quite a lot of Bermudians that have gone into law in the last ten years, but I would still welcome more. There is certainly room for more,'' he added.

Mr. Tokunbo claimed that when he arrived to head the department in March there was very little discipline among staff, no team spirit and low morale.

He said people took half days when they felt like it and there was little respect between members of his team.

He added: "I have restored some sort of discipline and order. There was division in the office and a lack of direction and management. I believe things are much improved now.

"This is why I couldn't understand this claim that morale was low. If anything, morale is at its highest point.'' And he said to help improve team spirit, prosecutor Larry Mussenden had been given the special responsibility of organising social events in the office and Mr. Tokunbo was currently running a competition between all members of staff to see who could come up with best mission statement for the DPP. The winner will receive a prize of a meal for two, or something similar.

And Mr. Tokunbo added that his other main objective was to establish the identity of the DPP and separate it from the Attorney General's (AG) Chambers.

He said when he first took over, many prosecutors were still based in the AG's Chambers, the DPP shared the same telephone number and there was a lack of space.

And he said, perhaps most importantly, people in the community did not understand the responsibilities of the two.

But he said it was important for people to realise that the role of the prosecutors had not changed and they were able to work away from the AG and perform the same duties as before.

He said: "We now have separate telephone lines, we have our own letterheads, we have moved away from the AG chambers to the second floor and are undergoing a major refurbishment. All of the prosecutors will be down here and we should be finished and complete by October.'' But that was only the furnishings and surroundings. What for Mr. Tokunbo himself? When asked where he saw himself in years to come, he said he had not really thought that far ahead.

"All I am concentrating on at the moment is the here and now,'' he added.

"I am focussing all my energies on this department for the moment.

"We have always been a competent and efficient prosecuting authority. I intend to ensure that it continues.'' No caption Khamisi Tokunbo