Nigerian nightmare...Court-appointed attorney in Michigan didn't have law license, report says

DETROIT, April 10 (UPI) -- A graduate of a Nigerian law school handled hundreds of cases in Michigan before being disbarred in March for unauthorized practice of law, officials said. Gbenga Anjorin, a 1992 graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University Law School in Nigeria, relied on a rarely issued limited license for foreign lawyers while handling criminal, civil and traffic cases in metropolitan Detroit for three years, the Detroit Free Press reported.

He's gotten dozens of court-assigned cases, handled hundreds of DUI cases, appeared in civil suits and even monitored the federal terrorism trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, often called the Underwear Bomber, who tried to blow up an airliner headed to Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009.

And he did it all without a Michigan law license.

Now holding the distinction of being disbarred before he ever got a state law license, Anjorin said on Monday, that he is appealing his March disbarment and declined to comment further.

"I'm going to wait until after the decision is made on my appeal," he said.

But the problems are just beginning for the courts where Anjorin handled cases.

"Mr. Anjorin is our Nigerian nightmare," said Presiding Judge Timothy Kenny of the Wayne County Circuit Court's criminal division, where Anjorin managed to get paid $9,645 as a court-appointed lawyer in more than 50 cases between 2009 and 2011.