The fun of trading a mobile telephone owned by his family friend for hard drug has earned Frederick, the son of Zambia’s second republic president, an eight-month imprisonment with hard labour for committing theft.
It was gathered that Lusaka Magistrate Court, Wednesday, slammed the 34-year-old the sentence for stealing Brenda Chisha’s phone, Lusaka Times reports.
Frederick Jacob Chiluba Jr, a retired ZAF officer who graduated in 2014, was convicted of stealing a Samsung S7 edge, valued at K8,500 from Chisha, on September 2, 2017 and traded it for drug in Chibolya.
In her testimony, Chisha told magistrate Chabala that she met Chiluba in Woodlands on September 2, 2017 and he asked to use her phone.
“I have known him for years and it was an S7 so I gave him and he used it for two minutes then gave it back to me.
“About 10 minutes later, he came and asked to use the phone again and I gave him but he started moving further and further away from where we were.
“I then asked Isaac, who will be a witness to get my phone from him and that was the last time I saw the phone.
“On Sunday, he was caught and taken to Kabwata Police. When I asked him where the phone was, he said he had forgotten it somewhere. That same day, the uncle came and assured me that they would buy me another phone,” Chisha said.
Chisha suggested that she wanted to withdraw the case as they were family friends, but magistrate Chabala ordered that she would proceed to hear the witnesses.
Chiluba, in his defence, denied stealing the phone and insisted that he returned it to the complainant. He recounted that on that day, he was having drinks with Chisha at Mommas Pub in Woodlands when he asked to use her phone to call his uncle because his phone had gone off.
Lusaka Magistrate Nthandose Chabala delivering judgement said she handed Chiluba Jr a custodial sentence as a deterrent to him and other would-be offenders.
