N25,000 meet-and-greet: Abuja restaurant threatens lawsuit against Hilda Baci

The management of an Abuja restaurant, Vibe By Ann’s, has threatened a lawsuit against the Guinness World Record-breaking chef, Hilda Bassey Effiong, popularly known as Hilda Baci, for breach of a signed agreement.

The restaurant reportedly signed an agreement with Baci for a ‘Meet and Greet’ session with her fans.

According to a viral flier that recently surfaced on the Internet, Baci allegedly charged N25,000 for personal meet-ups, live cooking, and food tasting in Abuja on June 24, 2023, at Vibe by Ann’s restaurant.

Reacting to the flier, the world record chef, in a post via her social media page on Friday, cancelled the ‘meet and greet’ session, clarifying that she did not ask anyone to pay such an amount of money.

She wrote: “Hi everyone. This is to inform everyone that I’m not doing any meet and greet in Abuja. I would also never ask anyone to pay for such.”

Reacting to her denial, the management of the restaurant, in a statement, said: “We regret to inform you that the highly anticipated event, scheduled to take place on 24th June 2023, has been cancelled. We extend our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you, our esteemed customers.”

Sharing the receipt of N3m paid to Baci, the management wrote: “Arrangements for this event were already concluded, as both parties agreed to put out publications for the event after an 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 in this matter.”