Only 20 directors out of 85 initially invited to sit for promotion to the post of Permanent Secretary in the federal civil service have successfully scaled through the exercise.

The successful ones are expected to participate in the final stage of Information Communication Technology (ICT) test slated for Wednesday (today)in Abuja.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS), Dr Folasade Yemi- Esan, disclosed this on Tuesday, following the release of the results.

She explained that out of the 85 candidates, four of them did not show up for the examination in what she alluded to fear.

Yemi- Esan said there was the need to emphasize meritocracy and integrity of the selection process.

She said: “It should not be about the number of successful candidates but the quality of the candidates.”

According to her, President Bola Tinubu had by this exercise further assured Nigerians that he was not pressured by any socio-political interest to compromise the present system of subjecting all candidates to various levels of assessment to test their competence.