On Akan-Asante and Anlo-Ewe Alliance. In 1869, the Anlo who had axe to grind with the British over their interference in their conflicts with Ada, Accra and Akyem made an appeal to the Asantehene to help them. The Anlo sent two messages to their ally: the first one was through Ewe Merchant, Geraldo de Lima who sent an invitation to the Asantehene through Akwamu messenger. In the second case, Togbe Akrobotu of Srogbe was secretly despatched to seek Ashanti military assistance, as they cleverly made John Tay, a merchant of Srogboe to sign a treaty of peace with the British to hide their true agenda. The Anlo people know that if their act became known the British gunboat could destroy the Anlo villages before the Ashanti troops arrived to help.
Historian Francis Agbodeka writes: "the initiative for the Anlo-Ashanti alliance of 1869 came from Anlo. When the Anlo envoy, Akrobotu, reached the Asantehene's court with his message he was welcomed and feted and he, in turn, strengthened the King in his resolution to invade Peki and Agotime. It was an attractive invitation and the King lost no time in accepting it, especially since he himself believed that by this invasion he would put an end to any hesitation on the part of the British in leaving the coast.
So it was that a considerable portion of the Ashanti army under Adu Bofo launched a heavy campaign in 1869 in what was the first phase of a grand plan to re-establish Ashanti dominion in the country right up to the seaboard. Adu Bofo, however, met with a most unexpected resistance which appeared to him to constitute a serious delay in the execution of the entire plan. He had need, therefore, to be as careful as his allies, the Anlos, had been in covering Ashanti motives until the kingdom was absolutely ready to embark on the scheme".
The claim that Ewes. particularly, the Anlo and Asantes are enemies, is a concoction made by post-colonial politicians to divide the people to win votes.
Reference
Agbodeka, Francis. "THE FANTI CONFEDERACY 1865-69: An Enquiry Into the Origins, Nature and Extent of an Early West African Protest Movement." Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 7 (1964): 82-123.