Councillor’s car smashed up during election

The car of a Greater Manchester councillor is understood to have been attacked outside an election count in Oldham this evening (May 8).

Police were called to The Loom, in the town centre, following the incident shortly before 2am.

It comes as thousands of seats were up for grabs on 136 councils across the country, including all 10 Greater Manchester borough councils.
Kamran Ghafoor, leader of the Oldham Group and one of three councillors in the Hollinwood ward, says he had parked his Ferrari on Union Street, close to where the count was taking place inside a building on Parliament Square.

Shortly before 2am, the councillor claims to have received word his car had been damaged, with the windscreen smashed up and dents made in the bumper. Members of the Oldham Group believe the attack was ‘targeted’.

Images from the scene appear to show footprints on the bonnet of the vehicle. Officers from Greater Manchester Police have been called to the scene.

A spokesperson for Oldham Council said they are looking into the incident and will be reviewing CCTV.

As leader of the Oldham Group, Mr Ghafoor currently heads a team of nine councillors which form one of two main opposition groups to Labour on Oldham council – a number he had been hoping to see swell to 16 this evening.

Earlier this year, a King Street building owned by KKS Investors, made up of Coun Ghafoor and Sameer Zulqurnain, collapsed in Oldham town centre. An avalanche of bricks, roof tiles, and the entire contents of a rented out apartment came crashing onto the street – caving into the Euro King

Mini Market below and crushing a bus stop on the pavement outside. Five people were injured.
The councillor insisted the company had done nothing wrong prior to the building’s collapse, but he had already earned a reputation in some quarters as a ‘slum’ landlord.