Principal Crown Counsel Vinette Graham-Allen is set to be promoted to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), can reveal.

It?s thought she has been given the nod over former DPP Khamisi Tokunbo, a female candidate from overseas and local lawyer Justin Williams who was recently made an acting Puisne Judge.

However Deputy Governor Nick Carter was typically giving nothing away when contacted him yesterday.

He said: ?No decision has been made, we are in the process but it is not made yet.

?Until a decision is made we will not be making an announcement.?

He said the final word from Governor Sir John Vereker would come within the next week or two and it was a process of ?dotting the I?s and crossing the T?s.?

Ms Graham-Allen could not be reached for comment yesterday.

She arrived from Jamaica in late 2000 having been Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, according to a report in the Jamaica Gleaner which noted she had appeared before the United Kingdom?s Privy Council twice.

She arrived in Bermuda as a Senior Crown Counsel and was then promoted to Principal Crown counsel after the death of Dorien Taylor. As number two in the DPP?s office she has often acted as Director.

She will replace Sri Lankan-born Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser who has been working on an acting basis after Mr. Tokunbo did not seek a renewal for the three-year $127,000-a-year post when his first contract ran out last April.

Mr. Tokunbo had initiated legal action challenging the constitutionality of a decision by the Governor not to automatically renew his contract but the action was then dropped.