10 years since Castro and Janet Bandu disappeared at Ada

Today marks exactly 1o years since Ghanaians received the sad news of the disappearance of top-rated hiplife musician Theophilus Tagoe, known in showbiz as Castro Under Fire or Castro De D’Destroyer. The highly-rated Ghanaian musician disappeared following a jet ski accident at the Ada Estuary.

Despite coordinated search efforts, Castro and his female friend Janet Bandu were never found. The duo were with former Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan and his brother Baffour Gyan when the incident happened.

Castro was a close friend of Asamoah and had recorded some hit songs with the iconic Black Stars striker including their 2013 hit single, “African Girls”.

Recounting the incident, Asamoah said maybe the incident was destined to happen because Castro was not part of the team going to Ada due to an arrangement he had to go to Kumasi for a funeral. However, Castro called them to wait for him to join them while they were on the Tema Motorway heading to Ada.

Asamoah Gyan said the plan was to go to Akosombo as usual but the yacht at Akosombo was broken so they called to find out if they could get a bigger yacht at Ada. He said, that at Ada, they were informed they could get two yachts to accommodate them all.

According to Gyan, Castro informed him before he returned to Ghana that he wouldn’t be able to go with them to Ada because he was going to attend a funeral at Kumasi. However, on their way to Ada, the group received a call from Castro that he was coming.

“Castro called me a week before I returned to Ghana and said he may not be able to go with us since a friend of his was bereaved, and he had to attend the funeral in Kumasi. A day before we went to Ada, he [Castro] came to my house and said he was on his way to Kumasi and would not join us.

“But whilst we were on our way to Ada, on the Accra-Tema motorway, we received a phone call that ‘Under’ [Castro] wants us to wait for him. We parked at a fuel filling station where a crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of me.

“I later got the inclination it was destined to happen because he was initially not part of the trip. When we got to Ada, everything went fine. We were to spend three days. We started using the Jet Ski on the second day,” Gyan recounted.

According to various reports at the time, the pair of Castro and Janet Bandu went missing around 10 AM on July 6 though the news broke later in the afternoon at around 2 PM local time. A member of the group and friend of Janet Bandu, Alberta, who was interviewed by Peace FM at the time said Janet Bandu did not know Castro. She said they met for the first time at Ada and it was through her that Janet Bandu got to know Castro.

According to Alberta in the interview with Peace FM, they were told the Jet Ski is one per person but Janet Bandu decided to hop on Castro’s bike. She said Castro asked her to get down but she refused.

Lawyer Maurice Ampaw, who took a serious interest in the case refuted the claims by Alberta, calling them lies.

In 2020, Maurice Ampaw blamed the Ghana Police Service for not doing enough to unravel the truth about the situation. He said the Marine Police who were dispatched to the area to search for the pair did not do it but instead went to have fun.

He said they delayed and failed to arrest any of the key persons connected with the incident which finally left the matter unresolved. He said after he gave them information concerning the incident, no one contacted him six years after the incident.

Castro and Janet Bandu are legally dead

Following the failure to find them, they were declared dead in 2021 in compliance with the Evidence Act of 1975, Section 33. The law states that “Where a person has not been heard of for seven years despite diligent effort (whether or not within that period) to find him, he is presumed to be dead.”