Local residents rushed to collect the leaking fuel before it caught fire, triggering the tanker blast.
The sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Cross River, Chidiebere Benjamin Nkwonta, said: "We met eight charred bodies on arrival at the scene
"Fifteen other people were severely burnt and in a life-threatening situation. They were taken to the hospital before we got there.
"I was also informed that out of the 15, some of them later died but I do not have the exact figures of the number that died."
Nkwonta, however, dismissed local reports that up to 60 people were killed as "grossly over-exaggerated".