Claim: Judge misquotes Idi Amin in remand ruling
Source: Court ruling
Verdict: True
Researched by Alfa Shaban
A popular quotation from an Accra Circuit Court ruling that remanded the Bono Regional Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Kwame Baffoe, standing trial on two counts, has triggered reactions online.
Judge Samuel Bright Acquah of the Accra Circuit Court, in a widely circulated proceeding of the September 12, 2025, sitting of the court, was criticised over some of the reasons he cited in refusing bail to Kwame Baffoe (alias Abronye DC), who was arrested on September 8, 2025.
Abronye is facing two counts of publication of false news with the intent to cause fear and panic, and offensive conduct conducive to breaches of peace.
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“If the citizens of Ghana do not set restrictions for themselves, then the court will do that for them. The late president Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe once said that ‘I can assure you of freedom of speech but cannot assure you of freedom after speech.’ He was reminding us that no freedom of speech is absolute but goes with restrictions,” the ruling said in part.
The judge has been accused of misattributing a popular quote on page 9 of the 10-page document. (here, here, here, here, here)
This report will ascertain whether the quote is attributable to Robert Mugabe.
Fact-check
GhanaFact started with a Google search of the quote as captured in the ruling (I can assure you of freedom of speech, but cannot assure you of freedom after speech), but the results did not include attributions to either Robert Mugabe or Idi Amin, the former Ugandan president.
Aside from the Judge’s quote, we found four different variants of the quote, all attributed to Amin.
| Source | Quote |
| Circuit Court Ruling | I can assure you of freedom of speech, but cannot assure you of freedom after speech |
| Goodreads | There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech |
| Goodreads | Freedom of speech, you have, but freedom after speech that I can not guarantee. |
| Africa Facts Zone | You have freedom of Speech, but freedom after speech that I cannot guarantee you. |
| OWP | You have freedom of speech, but freedom after speech, I cannot guarantee that |
In tracing publications that referenced Idi Amin speaking on freedom of speech, we found that the Organisation of World Peace (OWP) in 2015 used a variant of the quote in an article on freedom of speech. It read: “You have freedom of speech, but freedom after speech, I cannot guarantee that.”
The now-defunct Eswatini Observer, in a 2018 article, also shared a variant of the quote in an opinion piece.
In seeking when and/or where Amin used the quote, we found that the 2018 article stated that the quote was used by Idi Amin in his maiden speech. This is in line with the Goodreads quote that said Amin used the quote in his inaugural speech.
GhanaFact’s checks for a video of Amin’s inaugural speech did not yield positive results; the closest we came was a TikTok video of what appears to be the first media briefing Amin granted to journalists after taking over power from the deposed Milton Obote in 1971. In the video, Amin addressed a myriad of issues, but at no point did he reference freedom of speech.
Verdict
The quote was misattributed by the judge, but the source of the quote and its exact wording remain unproven, even though widely attributed to Idi Amin.
