As the family of the late Salome Adaidu mourns their daughter, they have reiterated their demand for justice.

Channels Television visited the residence of the family in Nyanya, a community on the border between Nasarawa State and the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Meanwhile, the parents of Timileyin Ajayi dismissed reports that they have disowned him, as his seventy-three-year-old father pleads for mercy and his mother leaves the matter to the authorities.

On Sunday, January 12, the nation was shaken by the gruesome murder of Salome Adaidu, a 24-year-old Kogi-born member of the National Youth Service Corps.

The brutality of the crime, allegedly committed by Timileyin Ajayi – who claimed to be her boyfriend – left many stunned, as reports emerged that her head was severed and her body dismembered.

Since her demise, many accounts of the incidents have surfaced leaving even more questions than answers.

Channels Television crew visited the residence of her family at Nyanya community, a satellite town nestled between Nasarawa State and the nation capital, Abuja. The Family, friends, and neighbours are still mourning the loss of Salome.

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‘Gentle, Beautiful, Brilliant, Quiet’

Salome’s elder sister, Patience Adaidu, described Salome as an intelligent, respectful, and reserved young lady billed to finalise her service in March, who had ambitions painfully cut short.

Reeling from pain, the family seeks answers, trusting authorities to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident as they demand justice.

“Salome is gentle, she is beautiful, she is brilliant and quiet. She was someone who had ambition, but this guy just cut her life short. She wanted to be like her boss, the person she was working with. That was the kind of person she was. She had too many ambitions. So far, we are satisfied with how the police are handling the case, but we just need more investigation. We want this case to be done so that I and my family will have peace,” she said.

“We are in Nigeria, and I should trust the police and the judiciary to serve justice in this. The way my sister was murdered, we expect the government and the police, the judiciary, and everyone involved to serve justice. The case is in Nasarawa State, in Lafia, and the governor had already said in Lafia there is a Shariah Law that states that anybody that is seen with a human body or any part of a human body is going to go on the same road as that human that he killed. So, let the guy face justice. Let him just face justice, she told us.”

Channels Television also visited the Papalada community, a suburb in the Karu local government area of Nasarawa State, where Timi Ajayi resided before the incident.

He lived in a compound with three apartments, he occupied one of them which is where he allegedly committed the crimes.

An eerie silence settled in the neighbourhood as several residents fled the area. The people who share the compound with Timi have vacated as we saw the compound deserted and locked. The few persons we sighted were jittery and hiding in their houses.

One of his neighbours, Godwin Peters, revealed that they knew Timi as a solo young man as they grappled with the shock of the incident.

“The only thing I know is he is a solo person. I don’t see him with friends, each time he passes through my house, he greets, and I greet and that is it. So, for me, he has a deceptive look let me just put it that way, he has a deceptive look. For someone who has the heart to do what he did, then means that you don’t really judge people by just merely looking at them,” he said.

Father Pleads For Mercy

The Channels Television crew also visited the Orozo community in the same local government area where Timi’s parents and his other siblings reside.

It also met with the elderly couple grappling with the devastating incident in their quiet neighborhood.

The family maintained that Timi, who is one of three children was not disowned. While his father, Mr. Sunday Ajayi pleaded for mercy on his behalf, his visibly terrified mother, Dorcas Ajayi said she had chosen to let the authorities handle the matter.

Timi’s father said, “I want the government to help me; to settle. Let them help me and beg the people to leave him”.

And his mother, “Assuming it’s my daughter they did that one too, how do I feel? So, I don’t know anything the government wants to do, everything is government’s hand.”

The police and Nasarawa state authorities revealed that investigations are ongoing while the state government promised to ensure that the perpetrator is brought to book.

Timileyin Ajayi has been remanded in the Lafia custodial centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service following a court order after the Police charged him to the High Court of Justice, Lafia, with a one-count charge for culpable homicide punishable by death, contrary to Section 221 of the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria.

The police are awaiting the assignment of the charge to a trial court by the Chief Judge of Nasarawa State after which a date for his arraignment will be determined.