The court, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, held that Delta State was not able to prove its claim that the money belonged to it.
The $15m was said to have been received by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from an undisclosed agent of former Delta State Governor James Ibori in 2007 to compromise the agency's probe into his handling of the state finances as the governor from 1999 to 2007.
The money was kept in the strong room of the Central Bank of Nigeria as an unclaimed property since August 2007, but a legal battle ensued over its ownership after the court, on July 24, 2012, granted an interim order forfeiting the cash to the Federal Government.
With the Federal Government, through the EFCC's lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, asking the court for a final order of forfeiture, so that the money could be deposited in the national treasury, Delta State filed an application, claiming that the money belonged to it.
Justice Kolawole, however, maintained that there was no evidence linking the state government to the $15m.
He said, "It is not enough to depose that Delta State Government owns the money, Chief James Ibori had denied knowledge of how the money came about.
"If the claimant (Delta State) had been able to file an admissible evidence to prove that the $15m belonged to it, the court would have no option than to accept its claim.
"The Delta State Government had filed an application, asking the court to quash charges against Ibori, that was inconsistent with a government that is looking for its looted funds.
"The claimant has not been able to link the $15m to its accounts, the claimant has not been able to prove on the balance of probability that the said $15m belongs to it."
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