diff --git a/lustre/liblustre/namei.c b/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
index 4b6895bef735c6d61f8b4c1568c09bbeeb1dab5d..ef60178b2362253d9066ae09ae0a3491f3bc7886 100644
--- a/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
+++ b/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
@@ -601,6 +601,8 @@ int llu_iop_lookup(struct pnode *pnode,
         }
 
 out:
+        if (it)
+                OBD_FREE(it, sizeof(*it));
         liblustre_wait_event(0);
         RETURN(rc);
 }