# THE ODPP 20 MONTHS AFTER CHRISTOPHER PRYDE WAS SUSPENDED. DYSFUNCTIONAL, UNDISCIPLINED, CHAOTIC

Christopher Pryde is finally meant to have had his day in court tomorrow (Monday Dec 2) after he was suspended as DPP in April 2023 for alleged misbehaviour. But he won’t be there when the investigating Tribunal of judges gathers at Veiuto and neither, Grubsheet understands, will the Fiji Law Society, which was invited to give its input but is now refusing to do so. More on that to come. But 20 months on, the only misbehaviour that is immediately obvious is the glaring misconduct under Christopher Pryde’s latest replacement, the Acting DPP, Nancy Tikoisuva.

The drunken display by Tikoisuva and her Deputy, John Rabuku, in the astonishing video that emerged last weekend at the end of the annual ODPP’s conference shocked much of the nation when it went viral after Grubsheet first showed it. It was a disgraceful exhibition of excess at a publicly-funded event that has attracted strong public criticism but as yet, no disciplinary proceedings against either the Acting DPP or the Deputy DPP.

That is to be expected. There is one rule for the likes of Christopher Pryde and quite another for the iTaukei elite who have been propelled into the senior offices of state under the Rabuka Coalition. But while Nancy Tikoisuva appears to have survived, for the time being, being photographed lolling drunkenly in front of a stack of liquor bottles as John Rabuku equally drunkenly horses around in a T shirt bearing the image of a stallion, she can kiss goodbye to ever being confirmed in the substantive position.

However much the Prime Minister and the gaggle of ethno-nationalists around him want to promote the likes of Nancy Tikoisuva, acting up as Acting DPP isn’t a qualification for being the actual DPP. And unfortunately for both Nancy and her stallion, John, the images of their bacchanalia will haunt them for the rest of their hopefully brief careers.

As the Tribunal hearing into Christopher Pryde is meant to be getting underway, it’s become abundantly clear that standards in the nation’s prosecution service have gone through the floor since he was suspended 20 months ago. And it goes way beyond the notorious end-of-conference video that would have been inconceivable under Pryde’s leadership. When he was in charge, the New Zealander insisted on the highest standards of conduct and decorum from ODPP staff, which are obvious in the picture on the left and the photos below.

It is astonishing that instead of expressions of contrition from Tikoisuva and her gaggle of iTaukei partygoers for their drunken conduct that has brought them and the entire criminal justice system into disrepute, senior officers of state like the Assistant DPP, Laisani Tubuakuro, have actually gone on the offensive attacking anyone who attacks them.

This includes the Assistant DPP criticising the Fiji Labour Party for its following Facebook statement that sets an outrageous precedent in Fiji in which a supposedly independent officer of state has abandoned all independence and crossed all accepted boundaries to attack a political party.

This is what Labour said:

And this is what Laisani Tabuakuro – an Assistant DPP- wrote in response. Clear grounds for dismissal in any government other than the Coalition.

Laisani Tabuakuro’s astonishing attack on Labour drew immediate condemnation but, of course, no official censure.

And Fiji Transparency reminded us that Laisani Tabuakuro is a repeat offender, her last outrage the subject of a Grubsheet posting back in March.

# THE GENUINE DISGRACE IS THE ASSISTANT DPP

So let’s just recap the current state of conduct at the top of the ODPP 20 months after Christopher Pryde’s suspension that was supposed to herald a glorious new era of iTaukei leadership.

We have an Acting DPP who was installed after her immediate predecessor, John Rabuku, was removed because three Supreme Court judges ruled that he couldn’t lawfully be Acting DPP under the Constitution because he had been found guilty of professional misconduct. Yet no sooner had the “Stallion” stood down than his close friend, Nancy, reinstated him to a senior position in the ODPP as her deputy. So the Deputy DPP is still someone who has been found guilty of professional misconduct but occupies the substantive position. No wonder they’re smiling.

Now we have an Assistant DPP in the form of Laisani Tabuakuo who thinks nothing of abandoning her independence as a senior officer of state to attack a political party that has the temerity to criticise her friend, John, and her friend, Nancy, for getting pissed on the public purse.

And of course, we have John who thinks nothing of breaking all legal convention and socialising with his other friend, the FICAC Commissioner, Barbara Malimali, while he is supposed to be investigating her for alleged abuse of office when she was Chair of the Electoral Commission.

And John thinks nothing as Deputy DPP of telling the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, that it isn’t in his power to appoint an inquiry into the circumstances of Barbara Malimali’s appointment. The PM went ahead and did it anyway and hopefully John Rabuku and Barbara Malimali will find themselves caught in Justice David Ashton-Lewis‘s web. But the cheek of these people knows no bounds.

# WHO IS RUNNING THE NATION? RABUKA OR RABUKU?

It’s no surprise that as this squalid cabal has tightened its tentacles at the ODPP that some of the best people there have chosen to leave, and not just the white people who’ve been shown the door.

We’ve already reported the removal of the assistant DPP, Elizabeth Rice, who John Rabuku told when he was still Acting DPP that he was sacking because she “was white”. And the subsequent resignations of another assistant DPP, Andrew Jack, and one of the ODPP’s prosecution stars, Lee Burney, who left to become a judge.

But less well known is the exodus of locals, including the heads of two divisions – the well regarded Janeeta Prasad – who resigned after Christopher Pryde’s suspension for a senior role in the Asian Development Bank – and the equally well regarded Juleen Fatiaki, of the respected Rotuman family – who also chose to leave rather than stay on under the “New Order”.

Janeeta Prasad headed the Serious Fraud Division of the ODPP and was a feared prosecutor, as was Juleen Fatiaki – the head of the Sexual Crimes Division – both of them principal legal officers who the ODPP could ill-afford to lose. But they left making it known that they were not prepared to serve under the “New Order”. And who can blame them. Because it has been an absolute disaster.

One need only look at the notorious video that emerged last weekend to realise that the policy of removing minorities in favour of iTaukei has failed. And that if anything deserves to emerge from the Christopher Pryde judicial Tribunal, it is that he should be reinstated to restore order to the ODPP after a shocking period of dysfunction.

The sole proof you need to reach the same conclusion, Fiji, is to again watch the disgraceful video from last weekend and compare it to how it was in the ODPP when Christopher Pryde was in charge. As they say, the camera never lies and the comparison between the two is shockingly stark. There is something very rotten in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and they are trying the wrong person for misbehaviour.

Click on the link below…

And then take in the images of Christopher Pryde’s last public function as DPP in an office that was firing on all cylinders but has now been degraded to an alarming extent for anyone who believes in the rule of law and needs major surgery to restore its reputation and performance.