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Arsene Wenger did not want to leave the club he loves, so the Gunners were forced to pay the final year of his salary in full.

Arsenal are desperate to get back in the Champions League and hope the announcement will galvanise disaffected fans before their showdown against Atletico Madrid.

Board members and Wenger were all singing from the same hymn sheet yesterday.

Chief executive Ivan Gazidis heaped praise on Wenger for his incredible 22 years which brought three titles, seven FA Cups and that Invincibles season in 2003/2004.

Gazidis would not be drawn on the talks which led to the Frenchman’s imminent departure.

But Wenger is understood to be unhappy and frustrated at both the speed and timing of the departure.

Germany’s biggest lender Deutsche Bank on Friday admitted to a massive erroneous transfer of €28bn ($34 billion) in a routine operation, more than the entire bank is worth.

The unprecedented mistake happened on March 16 when Deutsche Bank carried out a transfer to an account at Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex clearing house, a spokesman told AFP.

The operation was meant to involve a far smaller sum, which the bank has not revealed, and highlights IT and control issues at the banking giant.

Accounting errors happen most days, but the sum involved in this case is highly unusual and even exceeds Deutsche’s market capitalisation of 24 billion euros.

The incident, which came shortly before John Cryan was ousted as chief executive, was quickly fixed and no harm was done, the institution said.

But it raises questions about the risk management and control processes within the bank, which Cryan was meant to have greatly improved since his arrival in 2016.

Given sole command of the lender in 2016 after the departure of co-CEO Juergen Fitschen, Cryan’s task was to restructure Deutsche and clean up the toxic legacy of its pre-financial crisis bid to compete with global investment banking giants.

But Deutsche has yet to return to profitability, while the share price has slumped more than 50 percent in the past two years — around 30 percent this year alone.

In a sign of the bank’s ongoing internal tussles, Deutsche on Wednesday announced the departure of its IT and infrastructure chief Kim Hammonds, who had reportedly called the bank the “most dysfunctional company” that she had worked for.

The alleged victim of sexual harassment by a lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile -Ife, Ms. Monica Osagie, has been summoned to appear before the investigative panel probing the incident on Tuesday.

The invitation came barely 24 hours after her lawyer and and Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, claimed that the victim had not been invited by any panel.

But it was not clear why the letter dated April 19 2018 was not immediately released to her.

Osagie, an MBA regular student of the OAU was said to have gone into hiding since the sex-for-marks scandal broke out.

The letter  inviting Osagie dated April 19 2018 from the Office of the Secretary, Post-Graduate College, was obtained by our correspondent on Saturday in Jos.

The letter with Ref. No: ADP 15/16/H/1424 entitled: “Re: Investigative panel on alleged harassment of a female student: Detailed audio recording: Request for the presentation of Miss Osagie Monica Oselode”, was signed by the OAU Deputy Registrar and Post-Graduate College Secretary, Mrs. A.O. Fadeyibi.

The letter reads: “I write at the instance of the Provost, Post-Graduate College to invite you to appear before the investigative panel on alleged harassment of a female student detailed in audio recording at its meeting which will come up at 10:00am on Tuesday April 24 2018.

“Please be informed that on arrival, you are required to call the Secretary to the panel to facilitate your appearance before the panel. Thank you.”

Akiyode-Afolabi had raised the alarm that Osagie, “resorted to self help” through audio recording after two lecturers approached by her for intervention disappointed her.

According to her, several efforts made by her in reporting her predicament to two senior lecturers in the Faculty of Administration were unsuccessful as they both refused to intervene, adding that she therefore resorted to to self- help in documenting her evidence.

Akiyode-Afolabi, a former Public Officer of the OAU Students Union Government, therefore called on the school authorities “not to compromise the reputation of this old and respected university and its responsibility for protecting its students in a bid to covering the unethical and disgraceful behavior of individual lecturers.

The lecturer at the centre of the scandal Prof Richard Akindele of the Management and Accountancy Department, has been suspended indefinitely by OAU authorities after appearing before the panel last week.

Kwara Must Change, an advocacy group, has released a list of some victims of the robbery attack in Offa, Kwara state.

On April 5, some armed robbers attacked five commercial banks in the community, killing at least 17 persons, including police officers.

In a statement on Friday, the group identified 14 of the victims to include of 10 police officers and four civilians, while promising to update the list as more details emerge.

The listed victims are:

Jamiu Alawode, a 40-year-old old banker at StockcorpMicro-finance Bank in Offa

• Makinde Grace, daughter of James Oyeyemi, a retired police inspector
• Pelemo Ayesanmi, an assistant superintendent of police
• Kuburat Salam
• Ismaila Jimoh, a member of the association of unity vigilantes, Offa unity headquarters.
• Oyinlola Shakirat
• Oke Kayode, a police inspector
• Danjuma Yusuf, police inspector
• Babawale Balikisu, a sergeant
• Kolawole Mustapha, a sergeant
• Abimbola Adedokun, a sergeant
• Isha Monday, a sergeant
• Doyum Nakimbo, a sergeant
• Officer Abel, popularly called baba Offa

The police had announced the arrest of 19 suspects in relation to the attac

US President Donald Trump has accused the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of “keeping oil prices artificially very high.”

In tweet, Trump said the cartel’s pricing cycle “will not be accepted” as there is no scarcity of oil supply to warrant such “high prices.”

But OPEC secretary general, Mohammad Barkindo, in a swift response, said the US oil and gas industry benefits from the cartel’s efforts to restore stability in the market.

He was speaking from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“We in OPEC pride ourselves as friends of the United States who have vested interest in their growth, development and prosperity,” he said,  adding that OPEC, non-OPEC deal “has not only arrested the decline but rescued the oil industry from imminent collapse and is now on course to restore stability on a sustainable basis in the interest of producers, consumers and the global economy”.

Oil prices recorded slight increase on Friday ahead of a meeting by members of the joint OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial monitoring committee (JMMC) meeting, same day.

As at Thursday, OPEC daily basket price stood at $70.96 a barrel, compared with $69.39 on Wednesday, according to calculations by the secretariat.

But West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, rose to $68.53 a barrel on Friday, from $68.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.

Similarly, Brent crude, the global benchmark inched above the $73 mark on Friday, the highest since 2014.

Expectations are high that the OPEC and non-OPEC JMMC gathering will announce a specific timeline for further extension of its production cap agreement.

CNBC reports that Trump’s agitation may be fueled by news that major oil producers may be targeting much higher oil prices.

Saudi Arabia, a key OPEC member, has conveyed desire to see crude prices at around $80 or even $100 a barrel.

This is partly due to the kingdom’s planned initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, its state oil company.

Speaking in an interview withBloomberg TV, Barkindo said “geopolitical tensions in the Middle East (Iran) have brought back a premium to crude oil prices”.

According to him, “it wouldn’t be in the interest of producers or consumers to see a price shock” if Iran leaves the cartel based on US “re-imposed” sanctions.

The Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved the promotion of Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to the rank of commissioner of police.

Magu was previously a deputy commissioner of police.

In a statement on Friday, Ikechukwu Ani, PSC spokesman, said 17 other senior police officers were also promoted by the commission.

He said the PSC approved the promotion of the officers at its plenary meeting which held in Abuja, and was presided over by Mike Okiro, its chairman.

The commission had earlier announced the promotion of 45 police officers who captured Chukwudumuje Onuoamadike, kidnapped kingpin better known as Evans, and 21 member of his gang

Ani added that that among those promoted on Friday was Agbola Oshodi-Glover, an assistant inspector-general of police in charge of Zone 11, Osogbo, promoted to the rank of a DIG.

Others are Ghazzali Mohammed, a commissioner of police, administration at force headquarters; and Peace Abdallah, CP, force intelligence bureau, force headquarters, both promoted to assistant inspector general of police.

Also promoted are Ebere C. Onyeagoro, DCP administration, Kaduna state command; and Moshood O. Gbolarumi, DCP maritime, Lagos, promoted to the rank of commissioner of police.

Other promotions approved by the commission include one assistant commissioner of police, nine chief superintendents of police, one deputy superintendent of police, one assistant superintendent of police, and one inspector.

The federal capital territory administration (FCTA) says the national identification number (NIN) is now mandatory for land allocation within the FCT.

Muhammad Bello, FCT minister, disclosed this on Thursday when he received Aliyu Aziz, director-general, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

Bello said there is the need for every land allocated to be matched to an individual through NIN “in order to prevent multiple allocations.”

He also said this would ensure fairness and equity in the allocation process.

He commended Aziz for the increase in enrollment figures and measures put in place to ensure safety of data of Nigerians in the national identity database (NIDB).

The minister added that ongoing harmonisation efforts would help in checking duplication of functions among data collecting agencies.

Aziz said the NIMC act makes NIN mandatory for every citizen and legal resident, and is already being implemented by top government agencies as a basic requirement for offering government services.

He thanked Bello for “the steps he has taken so far to ensure the success of the national identity management system”.