$36,000 stolen from former Zambia President's bedroom

Unidentified people swooped into former Zambia President Rupiah Banda’s bedroom and made off with $36,000 (K190 million), local media reported Tuesday.

The privately-owned daily, The Post, quoted family sources saying the former president had reported a case of theft to police over the money that went missing Wednesday last week.

“The old man (Banda) says he counted the money before sleeping and he was shocked to discover it was gone the following morning,” the newspaper reported.

“I am sure you would have known about it because he even reported the case to police, he sent one of our family members to report to the police. From what I heard, police officers at some police station in Woodlands sent the family member back and asked him to call the actual owner of the cash to go and complain,” it reported.

The newspaper reported that Mr Banda later decided to withdraw the case from the police for unknown reasons.

Mr Banda, who lost to incumbent President Michael Sata, has retired from active politics and now lives in the up market area east of the capital Lusaka.