A photo allegedly showing the Nigerian chef, Hilda Baci, holding a Guinness World Records (GWR) certificate has circulated online.
Hilda Bassey Effiong, popularly known as Hilda Baci, made a historic feat on Monday, May 15, 2023, when she broke the Guinness World Records for the longest cooking time by an individual, Channels TV reported.
A tweep with the username: @HerStoryUG posted the photo on Twitter (now archived here) on Tuesday with a caption that reads:
”Nigerian chef Hilda Bassey has won the Guinness world record for completing 100 hours of cooking by an individual. Congratulations Hilda.”
The tweet has garnered more than 46,000 views and has been liked by over 700 tweeps as of 9PM on Tuesday.
Similarly, another Twitter user: @GoldmyneTV also posted the photo alongside a text report it published same Tuesday.
A Facebook page, DAILYGISTIRL.COM, also posted the photo with another caption that reads:
”Baci officially declared Guinness World Record Holder. IDAN doesn’t break, she breaks records. A big congratulations to Hilda Baci.”
CLAIM
Photo shows Hilda Baci with her Guinness World Record certificate.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
A post from the official Twitter page of Guinness World Records @GWR on Tuesday indicated that the review of evidence is still ongoing.
Our records team is looking forward to reviewing the evidence from Hilda’s epic cooking marathon.https://t.co/fzRlNpqU8e
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 16, 2023
Baci, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, has received a wave of support from political leaders including President Muhammadu Buhari, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, among other celebrities and well-meaning Nigerians following her cook-a-thon feat.
The ICIR reported that Hilda Bassey started the competition on Thursday, May 11, at 4PM after she turned on her cooker for the ‘cook-a-thon’ and peaked at 100 hours surpassing the initial record of 87 hours 45 minutes which was achieved in September 2019, by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef.
As of 9:00PM on Tuesday, the Guinness World Record is yet to officially declare Hilda Baci as the winner of the cook-a-thon or present her with the GWR certificate, it reported.
Further checks show that the image was doctored, as the person in the photograph is not Hilda Baci.
A reverse image search using TinEye revealed that the image used was originally a stock image of a cheerful black woman showing a V sign with a blank speech bubble owned by RawPixel.com.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the photo shows Hilda Baci with her Guinness World Record certificate is MISLEADING; findings show that the image in the photo has been doctored.
 certificate has circulated online.){kind=link}