Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Inos sworn in as Governor of Northern Marianas

Posted at 22:50 on 20 February, 2013 UTC

Eloy Inos has been sworn in as the new Governor of the Northern Marianas.

The former Lieutenant Governor was sworn in at a special meeting of the Senate after Benigno Fitial resigned from as Governor, citing personal health reasons.

Mr Fitial is the first CNMI governor to resign, a little over a week after he was the first governor to be impeached by the legislature on charges of corruption, felony and neglect of duty.

Our correspondent, Mark Rabago, says Mr Fitial was due to be tried in the Senate on the charges, but now this won’t happen as he is no longer Governor.

“It’s over, he resigned. There will not be any impeachment trial anymore basically because he resigned. He followed the call of Kilili Sablan after he was impeached by the House of Representatives and he did resign, and now our Governor is Eloy Inos.”

Senate President Jude Hofschneider has become the new Lieutenant Governor