The explosion occurred on Tuesday evening in the village of Majiya, located in Nigeria's Jigawa state. Earlier, media outlets reported 140 deaths.
At least 100 people have been hospitalized as a result of the incident, the newspaper said.
On Wednesday, the local police told CNN that the fuel tanker crashed and exploded when bystanders rushed to collect its fuel.
Earlier in October, Nigerian Petroleum Resources Minister Heineken Lokpobiri called on the state security service to take active measures on certification of fuel tanker drivers to reduce the number of such accidents across the country's highways.
In 2020, over 1,500 such accidents took place in Nigeria, killing over 500 people, the Nigerian security service’s data shows.