According to Lawyer Wayoe Ghanamannti, before anyone can legally benefit from Castro’s estates, he must be legally declared dead. He also said the family stands to lose if they insist on dragging their feet on having the courts declare their Castro dead. They (the family) may face legal charges on grounds of tampering with his (Castro) estate without going through the appropriate channel.
Speaking with Mz Gee on Simply Showbiz, Lawyer Wayoe explained the legalities surround a missing person and how their estate should be handled. He said: “Anybody who is living in Castro’s house today, as a brother or sister or mother or wife, they are just living there by grace and by mercy. They don’t have legal rights. So until they take steps to administer his estate. One day, they will be found guilty of intermeddling in his estate.
“How can you be there, and you don’t have the legal rights to interact or deal with his estate? The fact that they are dealing with his estate today, driving his car and sleeping in his house and all that, they must be minded that it is not lawful. They can only have the legal right if they have gone to court to get letters of probate to administer his estate,” he continued.
Conferring to Lawyer Wayoe, he said that the essence of presumption of death boils down to personal effects, properties and estate of the missing person. That is why it is imperative for family members to take the first step in ensuring that the right thing is done.
“Because if there is anybody who has to benefit from Castro’s estate … And like you said, Castro is a musician. His music as we are talking about now is making money on YouTube. And just like all great musicians, Micheal Jackson, Bob Marley, they are dead and gone, but their music is still making returns. So Castro’s estate is very important. And it is his family members who will benefit from the administration of this estate.”
He disclosed that this is why the law has deemed it incumbent that those who would benefit directly should be the ones to go to court and ask for an order. According to him, that order will give the conclusion that Castro is no more.
He also revealed that the State can go forward with the motion if the family refuses to do so. He gave four reasons that the State must present to the court. And the court will, in turn, order the Registrar of Birth and Death to issue a certificate of death to close the chapter. The reasons will be based on;
- They cannot find him.
- They cannot find his body, his corpse or skeleton or anything pointing that it is him.
- The last time we saw him, we saw him going somewhere, and that was the last place we saw him.
- They were witnesses like Asamoah Gyan and his friends who were there. Who can testify that, yes, we came here with Castro and Juliet Banda. And after a while, we can not see them.
Section 3 of the Evidence Act of Ghana, 1975 (N. R. C. D. 323) is the provision that equips the court to declare and presume a person to be dead after seven years.
After seven years of going missing, Castro’s family has refused to declare him dead. They believe that their relative is alive and would reappear soon.
