when to use or not to use "of"

[KLPNO]

Hello, everyone.
Sometimes I feel uncertain because I don't know if I should use "of" or I shouldn't. I mean sentences like this one. I have encountered it in a book on history.

Independence would therefore mean little more than handing over power to those groups which had always worked with the colonial power.

Why did not the author write 'handing over of power'? I think the reason is that 'handing over' is a gerund, not a noun and after a gerund one should not use 'of'. Am I right?

[Mister Micawber]

.
You have it reversed: the gerund (a noun from an -ing verb form) takes the 'of'--

Objected to handing over power -- (-ing verb form used as a participle to introduce a nonfinite clause)
Objected to the handing over of power -- (-ing verb form used as a noun -- also called 'gerund')
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[KLPNO]

Thank you very much, Mister Micawber.