Castro Saga: What If It Is A Publicity Stunt?

By now, it will take a Ghanaian from Pluto to come ask the whereabouts of Castro, wanting to hire his services for his concert because he or she knows nothing about what has happened to the hiplife artiste. Its been more than 21 days since Castro and Janet Bandu went missing and Ghanaians continue to talk. Whilst some are of the opinion that Castro is dead, others believe that he is not gone but still alive. Ebenezer Anangfio of Graphic Showbiz asks this question, “what if all these noise making about Castro was a publicity stunt”? Ghanaians have a talkative nature.

 On Sunday, July 6, 2014, something significant struck the entire nation which got many Ghanaians talking bla bla bla as usual.The issue in question was the alleged drowning of Theophilius Tagoe, who is known as Castro, a popular hiplife musician. It got the nation talking to the extent that the two biggest political parties in the country, NPP and NDC, joined in the search to unravel the truth and that was enough confirmation that, the news was very big. For the past three weeks, the alleged drowning has been widely discussed on every platform in Ghana. The content of the issues has been thoroughly dissected by majority of Ghanaians who one way or the other have a liking for Castro. Even those who don’t know Castro personally have not been left out. What has come out of these discussions is that, Ghanaians are divided on whether Castro is alive or dead. According to some, the rapper is alive while others believe that it’s time to say goodbye and move on. Until proven otherwise, I can say confidently that people believing that the musician is alive are only hopeful of him to be alive, believing that if indeed he is missing, then he would be found. The people saying Castro is dead are only basing their argument on the fact that, it is highly impossible for anyone to live under water for three weeks and still stay alive. There is a school of thought that, the whole incident could be a publicity stunt gone overboard. I hope Castro comes back to prove me wrong again, if not, then I think it’s plain silly to even entertain such a thought that, the whole thing was a stunt to be popular or stay relevant. But Castro is big and popular enough in Ghana especially when his songs are mostly banging hits and on the lips of everyone. On what basis will Castro pull such a reputation damaging stunt? Though, I’m not ruling out a publicity stunt in this picture, I think it should be discarded until it is proven otherwise. Now as Ghanaians constantly debate whether he is dead or not, what happens if he is not dead after all? Lots of happenings lately has given people hope that, perhaps Castro is not dead after all and that he could be hiding somewhere waiting for the whole heat to subside then he can show up. Many things about the news do not add up. Is someone not telling us something? His immediate family has gone totally mute and refused to comment on the issue. His parents stopped MUSIGA from holding a vigil for him claiming that, they had not informed anyone of his death. His wedded wife, Dorothy, is also not talking, instead her family believes their in-law is only missing and not dead. Even Castro’s own friends are confident that he is not dead, but alive somewhere. The lady that Castro allegedly drowned with, Janet Bandu’s family have also suddenly gone mute, even though they were very vocal earlier on about the situation to the extent of saying that, if Castro returned alive, they would ask him to produce their daughter. What could suddenly have made them go silent like that? More questions than answers. Should Castro appear alive, can he be dragged into the law courts and sued for creating fear and panic or for deceiving the whole country? The laws of Ghana frown on creating fear and panic but I do not think that, Castro can be touched if he came out alive. And my reasons are, did Castro tell anyone that he got drowned? If he had any management at all, did the management come out to announce that he had drowned? Can’t a person decide to stay away from the public domain without people necessarily finding reasons for such a decision? Is it by force to always come out to deny fake or unfavourable news about oneself? My people, is it by force? Did Castro force Ghanaians to believe that he had drowned? Why didn’t the people who contended they saw him drowning gotten arrested? Why couldn’t the Police invite the musicians who openly declared that Castro was dead for questioning? If the whole thing turns out to be a publicity stunt, then Castro is the winner, after all, he did not force anyone to believe what they want to believe. It’s a free world. Let’s just say that, he decided to stay away from the public for a while and someone deceived the whole country by reporting that he’s drowned. How is that his problem?