diff --git a/lustre/liblustre/namei.c b/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
index dc54a7e5f7de9fb8fad6f2c7463982ce20299a05..2857baf8a63faa8a1a61aac128e873d81fcd5296 100644
--- a/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
+++ b/lustre/liblustre/namei.c
@@ -595,6 +595,8 @@ int llu_iop_lookup(struct pnode *pnode,
         }
 
 out:
+        if (it)
+                OBD_FREE(it, sizeof(*it));
         liblustre_wait_event(0);
         RETURN(rc);
 }