Anthony Joshua speaks out on the death of his two ‘special’ best friends in fatal car crash for the first time: ‘It’s tough for me – but even tougher for their parents’

Anthony Joshua has broken his silence on the deaths of his two ‘special’ best friends in a car crash in Nigeria in December.

The boxer survived the crash with minor injuries but his long-time friends Sina Ghami and Kevin Latif Ayodele were killed after their SUV ploughed into a stationary truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Makun, Nigeria.

Ayodele was Joshua’s personal trainer while Ghami was his strength coach.  

Sharing a graphic of the duo on Instagram, Joshua wrote: ‘Thank you for all the love and care you have shown my brothers. I didn’t even realise how special they are. 

‘I’ll just be walking with them and cracking jokes with them, not even knowing God kept me in the presence of great men. 

‘100% it’s tough for me, but I know it’s even tougher for their parents. I have a strong mind, and I believe God knows their hearts. May God have mercy on my brothers.’

AJ was discharged from hospital late on New Year’s Eve and paid an emotional visit to a funeral home to pay his respects before they were repatriated.

Kolawole Omoboriowo has known AJ for eight years and broke the news to his family about the accident.

He coordinates Joshua’s logistics in Nigeria and described the crash as ‘a crazy nightmare’ and said Ayodele, one of the deceased, was ‘like a twin brother’ to the boxer.

Omoboriowo told Sky News: ‘What is actually in my head now is: “How do we get AJ out of that traumatised situation?”. And that is just the only thing that everybody is worried about right now.

‘Right now, everybody might think AJ is okay. But we don’t know how he’s going to take it.

‘But right now we just want everybody to actually like give him a moment to actually relax, rest, and we pick it up from there.

He added: ‘We just need to keep praying for AJ, for God to give him the strength to be able to carry on with these losses.’

We had little insight into how Joshua had taken the tragic event until now. But UFC fighter Kamaru Usman did have a video call with him on December 30 while he was recovering in the Duchess International Hospital.

During the call with Usman, Joshua was seated inside a treatment room and recounted the incident while appearing to have bandages on his head and torso.

He began by saying: ‘Obviously, two of my close friends passed away’.

Usman, a former UFC welterweight champion, questioned whether Ghami and Ayodele had been seated in the front of the black Lexus when it crashed.

Joshua replied: ‘One was in the front and one was behind him, on the right side. They both passed away. It still hasn’t sunk in. It still hasn’t hit me yet’. Joshua had swapped seats with Ayodele just before they set off.

Usman said: ‘I’m sorry for that man. Hey, you scared the world, I’ll tell you that right now.’

Joshua replied: ‘Life is short man, life is short. And now look, I get to speak with you for the first time’.

Usman then said: ‘I know. It’s a funny way of moving things, you know?

‘You scared the world. It’s crazy because obviously, we deal with the haters and all the bull**** each and every time and it sucks that it takes something serious like this to really see how many people have their eyes on you’.

On Friday last week, the driver, 47-year-old Adeniyi Kayode, appeared before a magistrate in Sagamu charged with dangerous driving causing death, reckless and negligent driving, having no licence and driving without due care and attention causing bodily harm to damage and property. 

If convicted he could face life in prison.

The authorities are still hunting for the driver of the truck which was parked illegally on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway – one of Nigeria’s deadliest roads.

Kayode was at the wheel of the black Lexus SUV carrying Joshua and his friends when it ploughed into the back of a stationary truck carrying soya beans. 

Father-of-three Kayode, who has worked for Joshua for more than three years, was granted bail but returned to custody until the 5 million Naira (£2,500) bond was paid and it is understood he was released on Monday. 

After the hearing his lawyer Olalekan Abiodun told the Daily Mail: ‘My client has pleaded not guilty and what happened was an accident, I haven’t had a full chance to speak with him yet but I know he is saying the brakes failed.

‘I also understand that the journey started in Lagos and that initially Anthony had got into the front seat but the driver asked him to swap seats.

‘He did this because Anthony is a big fellow and he couldn’t see the wing mirror properly so he asked him to move and he sat behind the driver.

‘From what I understand Latif was in front and then changed seats with Anthony.’

An eyewitness told Punch newspaper: ‘It was a two-vehicle convoy: a Lexus SUV and a Pajero SUV.

‘Joshua was seated behind the driver, with another person beside him. There was also a passenger sitting beside the driver, making four occupants in the Lexus that crashed. His security detail was in the vehicle behind them before the crash.

‘Other eyewitnesses and I began the rescue and flagged down oncoming vehicles to assist. A few minutes after the crash, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps arrived.’

Footage taken at the roadside showed the boxer grimacing in agony as he was moved from the wrecked vehicle into a police cruiser.

Nigeria’s president revealed that Joshua’s mother Yeta Odusanya had rushed to his bedside at the hospital after being informed of the crash.

Joshua has since been discharged from the Duchess International Hospital in Lagos, which has been rated the best private hospital in Nigeria for the past two years.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, local police told Daily Mail Sport that Joshua was ‘stable’ and suffered only ‘minor’ injuries.