Designer apologises over Mercy Aigbe dress scandal

Mercy Aigbe

Fashion designer, Maryam Elisha of Rikaotobyme, has offered a half-hearted apology for allegedly selling a bride’s dress to actress Mercy Aigbe for the latter’s 40th birthday celebration.

The red dress became a subject of controversy after a Benin-based newly-married woman, identified on social media as Rettypetty, accused the designer of delivering her wedding to the actress.

This was too bad. On the 29th of December 2017 which happens to be a day to my wedding, a greedy designer decided to ruin my big day. I cried all day no stop. I bought this lovely fabric from @bshani_bridalfbrics and asked her to deliver to this designer @rikaotobyme after I had concluded the style and price with @rikaotobyme I made a 50% payment to her as soon the fabric got to her. Told her its my wedding reception dress she assured me it will be ready on 26th. on that 26th i chatted her up to ask for my dress she replied saying it was ready as u can see on the chat above, she also said she will send a pics, eventually now sent a video d next day which was 27th u can also see that on the chat above. I sent the balance 50% to her on 28th when I had seen the dress and was satisfied, she couldn’t send that day cos all flights coming to Benin that day were cancelled. So we were now left with 29th a day to my wedding, I called her by 6am that morning and she told me d delivery Guy has gone to d park to send my dress that she will send the waybill details(sending details ) across shortly. I waited till 9am no words from her. i started calling to ask for the waybill details she wasn’t taking my calls, atimes she even cut the calls. I sent several messages no response at 1pm I started crying cos the situation got beyond my control. My hubby,friends and family requested for the number and also started calling her but she obviously decided not to take any calls again. Until 4pm when I was drained in tears she then called and was apologising that she didn’t know what to say to me that y she refuse taking calls, she continued saying the delivery guy she gave my dress to is no where to be found. when she heard how I was crying she then suggested to give me one of her old dresses for me to use for the day, I had no choice cos I was desperate I then accepted it.i got d dress on my wedding morning. I went on IG yesterdy only to see @realmercyaigbe wearing my dress with the same fabric I bought and she tagged same designer @rikaotobyme.how much did she pay u to disappoint a bride on her wedding day? U are heartlessly wicked and u will sure not get away with this @rikaotobyme

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Mercy, who was yet to respond as at the time of filing this report, had come under attack for wearing another woman’s dress for her birthday photo shoot.

On her part, Maryam Elisha blamed her inability to deliver Rettypetty’s dress on dispatch error, claiming that they were two dresses with same style, same colour and almost the same measurement.

She also accused the bride of taking the matter to social media instead of directing it to her organisation.

Her statement is produced below:

“Our attention has been drawn to the ongoing chaos surrounding a dress and one of our esteemed clients on Instagram and possibly on other blogs and social media sites.

“We would have preferred if this matter was addressed directly to us for a quick resolution and to avoid the media frenzy, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

“We hold our clients dearly and offer our services on first come first served bases with no iota of discrimination or insinuation of such.

“We admit that a dispatch error occurred in the delivery of a dress to Miss Lawrentta, who was set to get married on December 30, 2017, and the pickup of another dress on behalf of actress, Mercy Aigbe.

“Please note that both dresses were of the same style, the same colour (red) and almost the same measurement.

“On realising the error on dispatch, we quickly tried to rectify the mix-up. But it was too late as the wrong dress was already on its way to Edo state for the bride to be.

“We contacted the bride and explained we had an issue and asked if she would be comfortable with another dress, of same kind (which was the one meant for Mercy Aigbe), the bride agreed, so we allowed the dress to be delivered as time to recall dispatch was short in relation to the time of the wedding.

“We have already apologised to Miss Lawrentta, but once again use the public fora to tender an unreserved apology to her and by extension to Mercy Aigbe who shouldn’t have been dragged into this.

“We assure all our clients, past and future that our resolve to deliver top-notch designs to clients within the country and beyond will not be compromised and the error that led to this unhappy situation has since been corrected. Thank you”.