Asamoah Gyan slams allegations over friend’s death

FORMER Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan has denied what he described as “wild allegations and rumours” regarding the death of his best friend, the Ghanaian rapper Castro, and Castro’s girlfriend earlier this year.

Asamoah Gyan pictured during the 2014 World Cup match between Portugal and Ghana. Picture: AFP/Getty

Gyan’s lawyer Kissi Agyabeng said Gyan felt the need to set the record straight due to persistent speculation over the family’s alleged involvement in the disappearance of the pair during a holiday in the Ghanaian resort of Ada in July.

Castro - real name Theophilus Tagoe - and Janet Badu disappeared while using jet-skis and are presumed drowned, although their bodies were never found.

In a statement, Agyabeng said: “What sells in the media... in Ghana are wild allegations and rumours directed especially at Asamoah Gyan - ranging from the absurd - of the imputation of criminality to him in the sense that he either murdered Castro or had him kidnapped - and ending with the ludicrous - that he sacrificed him spiritually to enhance his career.

“We have been silent while these wild allegations and rumours have been peddled in the media. We have been silent not because we are concealing anything or that we do not feel the need to fully state what, from our reckoning, had happened in Ada. We have been silent because we did not want to interfere with police investigations.

“In our painful silence, we have been totally dismayed by the fact that the platform was provided for the peddling of these wild and ludicrous allegations and rumours against us. Those to whom the platform was provided offered no evidence whatsoever to back their statements. And indeed, the allegation of spiritual sacrifice can by no stretch of the imagination be propped up.”

Gyan left Sunderland to sign a lucrative deal with Al Ain in Abu Dhabi in 2012. Earlier this year, he announced he had signed a four-year contract extension.