Lethal Bizzle and Tinchy Stryder are amongst the artists to pay tribute to missing, presumed dead, Ghanaian musician Castro, who has been described as the ’50 Cent of Ghana’.
The death of Castro – real name Theophilus Tagoe – has not been officially confirmed, but he and a female friend were the victims of a suspected boating accident yesterday (July 6) in Ghana. The pair’s jetski has been recovered by police, who are now looking for the couple’s bodies, reports BBC Newsbeat.
Lethal Bizzle tweeted: “My favourite Ghanaian artist :(. #RIPCastro” while Tinchy Styder wrote: “My thoughts go out to Castro, his friends & family! Words can’t even explain the shock I got when I heard the news! You’re with the angels!”
Castro’s manager DJ Amess has spoken about the incident, saying that the woman jumped onto the jetski to “cruise with Castro”. He added: “When they took off, the bystanders were calling for them to return so that the girl would put on her life jacket. Castro was already wearing his. After they were a few miles away, they saw the girl jump from the boat into the river. Maybe she was afraid. I wasn’t there so I can’t confirm it but somebody told me this. Then Castro followed suit. He thought he could have saved the girl. He was wearing the life jacket so the moment he fell into the water he was not able to save the girl. They told me they saw him removing the jacket. I wasn’t there so I can’t confirm whether it’s true or not.”
The pair were on a trip with Ghanaian footballer Asamoah Gyan following Ghana’s exit from the World Cup. Local news site Vibe Ghana says that friends of the couple attempted to help rescue them, quoting a member of the group. “All of us, including Asamoah Gyan dived in to try and save Janet Bandu and Castro,” they said. “We all tried to help, but we couldn’t. We were very far away from them.”