June 13, (THEWILL) – Vibe by Ann’s, a restaurant in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and chef Hilda Bassey Effiong, also known as Hilda Baci, are at loggerheads over a planned meet-and-greet.
Last week, a poster surfaced online indicating that Baci charged N25,000 for a live cooking meet and greet scheduled to hold in Abuja, on June 24, at Vibe by Ann’s restaurant.
Baci, however, distanced herself from the said event, adding that she did not ask people to pay N25,000 to meet and greet her at the Federal Capital Territory.
Reacting in a statement on its Instagram page on Monday, the restaurant countered her claim.
The restaurant claimed both parties agreed to organise the event and had already concluded arrangements before Baci’s denial.
Vibe by Ann’s accompanied the statement with a receipt of N3 million payment allegedly sent to Baci for the event.
The restaurant said it was shocked by the chef’s denial and vowed to use all necessary legal steps to ensure justice is served.
“We regret to inform you that the highly anticipated event, scheduled to take place on 24th June has been cancelled.
“Arrangements for this event were already concluded, as both parties agreed to put out publications for the event after advanced payment was made to Miss Hilda Bassey.
“However, Hilda Bassey suddenly denied publicly having any prior knowledge of the event.
“Her conduct has negatively affected our reputation as a brand. Consequently, we are taking all necessary legal steps towards ensuring that justice is seen to have been done on this matter.
“We understand that many of you have been looking forward to this event and we share in the disappointment.
“Our team has been working tirelessly to explore all possible alternatives to ensure the event could proceed as planned but unfortunately, we are left with no viable options but to take the steps enumerated herein,” it said.
Baci also made a live Instagram session to call out the restaurant for being economical with the truth and stating her own side of the story.
According to her, the impression the restaurant gave her at first was that she was coming in for an appearance and she charged them accordingly but when she realised that fans have to pay to see her, she opted out of the deal and refunded the money she was paid.
The chef added that she was not carried along before the poster of the meet-and-greet was released and revealed that some steps were taken without her consent.
Speaking further, she made it known that she opted out of the deal before criticism started trailing her for accepting money to meet her fans.
Baci also posted screenshots of some of the conversations she had with the restaurant while trying to wash her hands off the controversy.
